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WORKS BY 

H. RIDER HAGGARD 

Parliamentary Blue-Book 

REPORT TO H.M.’s GOVERNMENT ON THE SALVATION ARMY 
COLONIES in the United States, with Scheme of 
National Land Settlement. [Cd. 2562] 

Political History 

CETEWAYO AND HIS WHITE NEIGHBOURS 

Works on Agriculture , Country Life , 
and Sociology 

RURAL ENGLAND (2 vols ) A GARDENER’S YEAR 

THE POOR AND THE LAND RURAL E DENMARK. AND ITS 

A FARMER’S YEAR LESSONS 

Book of Travel 

A WINTER PILGRIMAGE 


Novels 

DAWN JOAN HASTE 

THE WITCH’S HEAD DOCTOR THERNE 

JESS STELLA FREGELIUS 

COLONEL QUARITCH, V. C. THE IVAY OF THE SPIRIT 

BEATRICE LOVE ETERNAL 

• Romances 


KING SOLOMON’S MINES 
SHE 

ALLAN QUATERMAIN 
MAIWA’S REVENGE 
MR. MEESON’S WILL 
ALLAN’S WIFE 
CLEOPATRA 
ERIC BRIGHTEYES 
NADA THE LILY 
MONTEZUMA’S DAUGHTER 
THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST 
HEART OF THE WORLD 
SWALLOW 

BLACK HEART AND WHITE 
HEART 
LYSBETH 
PEARL MAIDEN 
THE BRETHREN 
AYESHA: THE RETURN OF 
SHE 

BENITA 

FAIR MARGARET 
THE GHOST KINGS 


THE YELLOW GOD: AN IDOL 
OF AFRICA 
MORNING STAR 
THE LADY OF BLOSSHOLME 
QUEEN SHEBA’S RING 
RED EVE 

THE MAHATMA AND THE 
HARE 
MARIE 

CHILD OF STORM 
THE WANDERER’S NECK¬ 
LACE 

THE HOLY FLOWER 
THE IVORY CHILD 
FINISHED 

WHEN THE WORLD SHOOK 
MOON OF ISRAEL 
THE ANCIENT ALLAN 
SMITH AND THE PHARAOHS, 
AND OTHER TALES 
SHE AND ALLAN 
THE VIRGIN OF THE SUN 


(In collaboration with Andrew Lang) 
THE WORLD’S DESIRE 




Wisdom’s Daughter 

!The Life and Love Story of 
She- Who-TMiust-be- Obeyed 

/ ' 

B y 

H. Rider Haggard 



Garden City New York 
Doubleday, Page & Company 

1923 


























o 





COPYRIGHT, I923, fiY 
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 


/ 


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 
AT 

THE COUNTRY LITE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 



First Edition 

APR 12 *23 P- 

C1A698059 y 


In bygone years the books “ She ” 
and “Ayesha ” were dedicated to 
Andrew Lang. Now,when he is dead, 
this, the last romance that will be 
written concerning “ She-Who-Must- 
Be-Obeyed is offered as a tribute to 
his beloved and honoured memory. 


Ditchingham , 1922 . 



EDITOR’S NOTE 


What was the greatest fault of Ayesha, She-JVho- 
Must-B e-Ob eyed? Surely a vanity so colossal that, 
to take one out of many examples, it persuaded her 
that her mother died after looking upon her, fearing 
lest, should she live, she might give birth to another 
child who was less fair. 

At least, as her story shows, it was vanity, rather 
than love of the beauteous Greek, Kallikrates, that 
stained the hands of She with his innocent blood and, 
amongst other ills, brought upon her the fearful 
curse of deathlessness while still inhabiting a sphere 
where Death is lord of all. Had not Amenartas 
taunted her with the waning of her imperial beauty, 
eaten of the tooth of Time, never would she have 
disobeyed the command of her master, the Prophet 
Noot, and entered that Fire of Immortality which 
she was set to guard. 

Thus it seems that by denial she would have 
escaped the net of many woes in which, perchance, 
she is still entangled and of Ayesha, Daughter of 
Wisdom yet Folly’s Slave, there would have been no 
tale to tell and, from her parable of the eternal war 
of flesh and spirit there would have been no lesson 
to be learned. But Vanity—or was it Fate?—led 
her down another road. 

The Editor. 


Vll 



















CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introductory . xi 

CHAPTER 

I. The Halls of Heaven . i 

II. Noot the Prophet Comes to Ozal . . 13 

III. The Battle and the Flight ... .28 

IV. The Kiss of Fate .40 

V. The Summons.54 

VI. The Divination. 67 

VII. The Quelling of the Storm .... 85 

VIII. The King of Sidon.99 

IX. Dagon Takes His Sacrifice 115 

X. The Vengeance of Beltis.129 

XI. The Escape from Sidon .149 

XII. The Sea Battle .164 

XIII. The Shame of Pharaoh.182 

XIV. The Beguiling of Bagoas .202 

XV. The Plot and the Voice.219 

XVI. The Feast of the King of Kings . . . 234 

XVII. The Flight and the Summons . . . 247 

ix 














X 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XVIII. The Tale of Philo. 264 

XIX. The Hermitage of Noot. 278 

XX. The Coming of Kallikrates .... 295 

XXI. The Truth and the Temptation . . 312 

XXII. Beware! . 326 

XXIII. The Doom of the Fire. 340 

XXIV. The Counsel of Philo. 353 

XXV. In Undying Loneliness. 371 







WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 



INTRODUCTORY 


The manuscript of which the contents are printed 
here was discovered among the effects of the late 
L. Horace Holly, though not until some years after 
his death. It was in an envelope on which had been 
scribbled a direction that it should be forwarded 
to the present editor “at the appointed time, ,} 
words that at first he did not understand. How¬ 
ever, in due course it arrived without any accompany¬ 
ing note of explanation, so that to this hour he does 
not know by whom it was sent or where from, 
since the only postmark on the packet was London, 
IV., and the address was typewritten. 

IVhen opened the package proved to contain two 
thick notebooks, bound in parchment, or rather 
scraped goat or sheepskin, and very roughly as 
though by an unskilled hand, perhaps in order to 
preserve them if exposed to hard usage or weather. 
The paper of these books is extremely thin and 
tough so that each of them contains a great number 
of sheets. It is not of European make, and its ap¬ 
pearance suggests that it was manufactured in the 
East, perhaps in China. 

There could be no doubt as to who had owned 
these notebooks, because on one of them, the first, 
written in red ink upon the parchment cover in 
block letters, appears the name of Mr. Holly 
himself . Also on its first pages are various memo¬ 
randa of travel evidently made by him and no one 
else. After these follow sheet upon sheet of ap- 


INTRODUCTORY 


parently indecipherable shorthand mixed up with 
tiny Arabic characters. This shorthand proved to 
belong to no known system, and although every 
effort was made to decipher it, for over two years 
it remained unread. 

At length, when all attempts had been abandoned, 
almost by chance, it was shown to a great Oriental 
scholar, a friend of the Editor, who glanced at it 
and took it to bed with him. Next morning at 
breakfast he announced calmly that he had dis¬ 
covered the key and could read the stuff as easily as 
though it were a newspaper leader. It seemed 
that the writing was an ancient forjn of contracted 
Arabic, mixed in places with the Demotic of the 
Egyptians—a shorthand Arabic and a shorthand 
Demotic, difficult at first, but once the key was found 
easily decipherable by some six or eight living men, 
of whom, as it chanced, the learned scholar into 
whose hands it had thus fallen accidentally was one. 

So it came about that with toil and cost and time, 
at length those two closely written volumes were 
transcribed in full and translated. For the rest, 
they speak for themselves. Let the reader judge 
of them. 

There is but one thing to add. Although it is 
recorded in notebooks that had been his property, 
clearly this manuscript was NOT written by Mr. 
Holly. For reasons which she explains it was 
written with the hand of She herself, during the 
period of her second incarnation when at last Leo 
found her in the mountains of Thibet, as is de¬ 
scribed in the book called “Ayesha.” 


hVisdom’s Daughter 

CHAPTER I 

The Halls of Heaven 

To THE learned man, ugly of form and face but 
sound at heart, Holly by name, a citizen of a north* 
ern land whom at times I think that once I knew as 
Noot the Holy, that philosopher who was my mas¬ 
ter in a past which seems far to him and is forgot, 
but to me is but as yesterday, to this Holly, I say, I, 
who on earth am named Ayesha, daughter of Yarab 
the Arab chief, but who have many other titles here 
and elsewhere, have told certain stories of my past 
days and the part I played in them. Also I have told 
the same or other stories to my lord Kallikrates, the 
Greek, now named Leo Vincey, aforetimes a war¬ 
rior after the habit of his race and his forefathers, 
who for religious reasons became a priest of Isis, 
the great goddess of Egypt and, once I believed, 
my mother in the spirit. Also I have told these or 
different tales to one Allan, a wandering hunter of 
beasts and a fighting man of good blood who 
visited me at Kor, though of this I said nothing to 
Holly or to my lord Kallikrates, now known as Leo 
or the Lion, because as to this Allan I held it wiser 
to be silent. 

All these stories do not agree together, since 
often I spoke them as parables, or in order to tell 


2 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


to each that which he would wish to hear, or to 
hide my mind for my own purposes. 

Yet in every one of them lay hid something of 
the truth, a grain of gold in the ore of fable that 
might be found by him who had the skill and 
strength to seek. 

Now my spirit moves me to interpret these 
parables and set down what I am and whence I 
came and certain of the things that I have seen and 
done, or at the least such of them as I am permitted 
to reveal by those mightier than I of whom I am 
the servant, as they in their turn are the servants 
of others yet mightier than themselves. 

Here in these Asian caves I sit, the Hesea of 
the Mountain, the last priestess of the worship of 
Mother Isis upon earth, as aforetime I sat amid the 
ruins of Kor in Libya. 

At Kor for two thousand years I watched and 
waited till at length reborn, Kallikrates, whom un¬ 
wittingly I slew in a rage of jealousy, came back to 
me where I had slain him. There, because of the 
curse that is on me and him, I lost him again, for 
in this very place, too, I was slain most horribly, 
slain by an excess of life wherewith I thought to 
make myself more beautiful even than I was and in 
striving to overfill the vase, shattered it to the 
vilest dust. Thus once more Fate made a mock of 
me; once more I lost Kallikrates whom it is my 
doom to desire in the flesh and to raise up in the 
spirit through time untold. 

My soul passed out and on and here for a little 
while it found a home masked in the withered shape 
of an ancient priestess of my worship. 

As was foredoomed my lord came back to me 
and saw the shining soul within that hideous shape 
and claimed it with a kiss, as I think the bravest 


THE HALLS OF HEAVEN 


3 


deed and the most faithful that was ever done by 
man. In the magic of that kiss as also was fore¬ 
doomed, my beauty grew again before his eyes, so 
that once more I stand a glory upon earth. Now 
we are plighted, now, if all goes well, within a 
year we shall be wed, aye, within one short year 
after I have borne him back to Kor and unsealed 
the hidden .Fire of Life and plunged him in 
its essence, giving to him my own gift of undying 
days. 

And yet and yet—who knows the end? He 
presses me sore, and the starved woman part of me 
is passionate and weak and I may yield, and if his 
lips touch mine, who can say but that the fire within 
me will destroy him, the unfortified, and bring all 
my plans to dust and nothingness? I am great, 
set far above mortals, yet I play against forces 
I cannot see, that are greater than I, and it may 
please them to snatch the cup from my lips, and once 
more to overthrow me; for even though the blood 
of gods runs in him, as it runs in all of us, who can 
stand against their master, Doom, and its decrees? 
Therefore I, named Wisdom’s Daughter, named 
Child of Isis, to-night am as full of fears as any 
mortal maid craving her lover beneath the moon 
and not knowing but that war, or chance, or the 
vile breath of sickness may have borne him away into 
that gulf where all things must be lost—until they 
are found again. 

From month to month Leo, my lord, hunts upon 
the mountain after the fashion of men, and I, 
Ayesha, brood within the caves after the fashion of 
women. Yes, I who am half a goddess still brood 
within the caves after the fashion of women who 
wait and watch. Holly, the instructed, who loves 


4 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


me, as all men must do, bides here with me in 
the caves and we talk together of ancient things 
whereof the world has lost count, for he is a learned 
man skilled in the tongues of Greece and Rome, and 
one who thinks and, perchance, remembers. 

But yesterday he said to me that I who seemed 
to know the past and to whom doors were opened 
that cannot be entered by human feet, should write 
down what I know and have experienced, that in 
time to come the world may be the wiser. 

This the fancy has taken me to do, though 
whether I shall persevere to the end, I cannot say. 
He has given me that wherein I can write. ’Tis not 
the old papyrus, but it will serve, and I have pens 
of reed and can make ink of various colours, who 
in the bygone days was no mean scribe. Also I 
sleep but little, whose body, filled like a cup with 
life, needs small rest, and the long hours of the 
night pass wearily for me who lie and brood upon 
what has been and is to come, searching the dark¬ 
ness of the future with aching, fearful soul. More¬ 
over, I am able to write in characters which, with 
all his learning, Holly cannot read, I who am not 
minded that he should know my thoughts and deeds 
and betray them to my lord whom they might cause 
to think the worse of me. 

Why, then, should I write at all? For this rea¬ 
son: in certain matters I have foreknowledge and 
my spirit tells me that in a day to come, at the 
time appointed, some will guess the secret of my 
script and render it into tongues that all may read, 
so that when, soon or late, upon the circle of my 
eternal path, I pass hence to whence I came, and, 
like to the Fire-God in the caves of Kor am hid 
awhile, this record will remain my monument. Ah! 
there peeps out the mortal in me, for see! like any 


THE HALLS OF HEAVEN 


5 


common man or woman I would not be forgot even 
among the passing dwellers in a petty world. 

Now to my task. 

I have a vision of what chanced to my soul before 
it descended to dwell on earth, and with it I will 
begin. Maybe it is but a parable not to be strictly 
rendered, a token and a symbol rather than a truth. 
Yet of this I am sure that in it there is something 
of the truth, since otherwise why through the long 
centuries did it return to me again and yet again? 
Mayhap Greece and Egypt had no gods save those 
they fashioned for themselves. Holly tells me, 
as did the Wanderer, Allan, who also had some 
smattering of knowledge, that Zeus and Aphrodite 
and Osiris and Horus and Ammon are now de¬ 
throned with all their company and lie in the dust 
like the shattered columns of their temples, the 
mock of men who talk of them as the fables of 
the early world, so that of all the divinities that 
I knew, He of the Jews, although changed of char¬ 
acter and countenance, alone is worshipped and 
remains. 

Doubtless it is so, yet while man lives, always 
there is God, though his shapes be many. Always 
there is the eternal Good, as in a dream the holy 
Noot named the ultimate Divine, and behold! it 
is called Ammon or otherwise. Always there is 
Evil and behold! it is called Set or Baal, or Moloch, 
or otherwise. Always the stained soul of man seeks 
redemption, and he who saves is called Osiris or 
otherwise. Always Nature endures and she is 
called Isis or otherwise. Always the great world 
that will not die strains and pulses to new life, and 
the Life-bringer is called Aphrodite or otherwise. 
And so on continually. Where man is, again I 


6 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


say, there was and is and will be God, or Good—the 
Spirit named by many names. 

I go to my window-place in this cave-chamber 
and look out upon the stars shining countless in 
the frosty sky and lo! there I see God clad in one 
of the most glorious of His garments. I look at 
the moth flitting round my lamp or resting on the 
wall and, by the magic that is in it, summoning its 
mate from far, and To ! there I see God in another 
of His humbler garments. For God is in all things 
and everywhere, and from the great suns down, to 
Him who sent them forth and to Whom they return 
again, all that hath life must bow. 

This is the vision wherein I read a parable of 
eternal truths. 

I, Ayesha, daughter of Yarab, not yet of the 
flesh, but above and beyond the flesh inhabited the 
halls of that great goddess of the earth, a minister 
of That which rules all the earth (Nature’s self 
as now I know), who in Egypt was named Isis, 
Mother of Mysteries. Child, she named me, and 
Messenger; and in that dream or parable, as a 
child was I to her, for I drank of the cup of her 
wisdom and something of her greatness was in my 
soul. 

The goddess sat brooding in her sanctuary 
where Spirits came and went bearing tidings from 
all lands or emptying at her feet the cups of offered 
prayer. About her fell her robes, blue as the sky, 
and over the robes hung down her hair dusky as the 
night, and beneath her bent brows shone her eyes 
like stars of the night. In her hand was the rod 
of power and the footstool at her feet was shaped 
like the round world. There, canopied with light, 
she sat upon an ebon seat and brooded while round 


THE HALLS OF HEAVEN 


7 

her beat music like sea waves upon the shore, such 
music as is not known upon the earth. 

I appeared. I stood before her, I abased myself, 
I bowed till my forehead lay upon the ground and 
my hair swept the dust of the ground. She touched 
me with her sceptre, bidding me arise. 

“Speak, Child,” she said. “What message dost 
thou bring from the shores of Nile? How goes 
my worship in the temples of Isis and are my ser¬ 
vants faithful to my law?” 

Then I made answer. 

“O Mother divine, I have accomplished my em¬ 
bassy. Unseen, a spirit, I have wandered through 
the Land of Egypt. I have visited thy temples, 
I have hearkened to the councils of thy priests, I 
have watched thy worshippers and read their 
hearts. This is my report. Thy holy temples are 
empty; thy priests neglect thine altars; save a rem¬ 
nant who remain faithful, thy worshippers bow 
themselves before the shrines of another goddess.” 

“How is this goddess named, O Child of my 
love and wisdom?” 

“She is named Aphrodite of the Greeks, a people 
who have flowed into Egypt, also other folk know 
her as Ashtoreth and Venus. Her sanctuary of 
sanctuaries is at Paphos in Cyprus, an island of the 
sea over against Egypt. She is the Queen of 
earthly love and love is the ritual of her worship, 
and she makes a mock of thee, O Mother, and of 
all the ancient gods, thy brothers and sisters, swear¬ 
ing that thy day and theirs is done and that she has 
risen from the sea to rule the world, and will rule 
it to the end. Here and there she reveals herself 
and conquers by her beauty, making all men to wor¬ 
ship her and teaching all women to follow in her 
steps and beguile as she does, so that thy very 


8 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


priests turn to her and thy priestesses break from 
their vows and wanton with them.'’ 

“All of this I have learned, O Child, and more; 
yet it was my desire to hear it from thy lips that 
cannot lie, since in thee dwells my spirit. Hearken 
now! I am minded to be avenged upon these false 
Egyptians, and thou shalt be the sword of venge¬ 
ance wherewith I will smite them, bringing their 
ancient glory to the dust and for ever setting the 
yoke of bondage on their necks. Aye, I am so 
minded and it shall be done, how, I will teach 
thee afterward. But first, as I have the power 
to do, I who under the Strength above me am regent 
of the ball of earth, will summon this Aphrodite 
to my presence here and now, and bid her speak out 
her heart to me. 

“Hear me, Aphrodite, wherever thou art in earth 
or heaven. Aphrodite, I bid thee appear.” 

Then in my vision the Mother rose from her 
throne. Standing before it, terrible to see, she 
beckoned with her sceptre, north and south and east 
and west, uttering the secret words of power. 
Thrice she beckoned and thrice she spoke the secret 
words, and waited. 

There was a stir at the end of the great hall and 
a sound of singing. Behold! floating between the 
long lines of the flame-clad guardians of that hall, 
attended by her subject gods, her maenads and her 
maidens, a shape of naked loveliness, came 
Aphrodite of the Greeks. Veiled in her curling 
locks and roped about with gleaming pearls for 
necklace and for girdle, she stood before the throne 
and bowed to the Majesty it bore, then asked in a 
laughing voice of music, 

“I have heard thy summons, Mother of Mys- 


THE HALLS OF HEAVEN 


9 


teries, and I am here. What wouldst thou of me, 
Isis, Queen of the World? How can the Sea-born 
whose name is Beauty and whose gift is Love, 
serve thee, Isis, Queen of the World? 

“Thus, thou who art shameless, thou born of the 
new gods and fashioned from the evil that is in the 
race of men—by lifting thy spell from off my wor¬ 
shippers. I know thy works. Drunken with desires 
they flock to thee in troops and for reward thou 
givest them the wages of their sin. Thou layest 
waste their homes; thou defilest their maidens, thou 
turnest men to beasts and makest a mock of them. 
Thy flowers fade; thy joys fill the mouth with ashes 
and those who drink of thy cup suck up poison in 
their souls. Thy fair flesh is a rottenness and thy 
perfumes are a stench and the incense of thine altars 
is the reek of hell. Therefore I command thee, 
go back to whence thou earnest and leave the world 
in peace.” 

“Whither, then, should I go, Mother?” answered 
Aphrodite with her silvery laugh, “save into thy 
bosom, whence indeed I sprang, seeing that thou art 
Nature’s self and I am thy child. Stern is thy law 
and sweet, yet without me thou wouldst have none 
over whom to rule. Aye, without me would no 
child be born and not even a flower would blow. 
Without me thou wouldst rule a wilderness with 
but the wisdom of which thou boastest to keep thee 
company. Hearken! We are at war and in that 
war I shall be conqueror, for I am eternal and 
all life is my slave, because my name is Life. Get 
thee to thy heaven, Isis, and rule there with Osiris, 
Lord of Death, but leave me the living. Soon their 
day is done and they pass beyond my spells into thy 
dominion. There treat them as thou wilt and be 
content, for then I have no more need of them, nor 


IO 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


they of me. Why of a sudden art thou so wrath 
with me, whom thou hast known from the beginning? 
Is it because I take new names and set up my altars 
in thine own Egypt, altars wreathed with flowers, 
leaving all desolate thine where prayers are 
mumbled from starved hearts and cold hands make 
the offering of denial? Come now, Mother Isis, 
let us play a game and let Egypt be the stake. 
Thou hast the vantage there, seeing that for aeons 
it has bowed to thy laws and thy yoke has been 
upon its neck.” 

“What, then, O Aphrodite, dost thou promise 
Egypt to which I and those who rule with me have 
given greatness, wisdom, and hope beyond the 
grave ?” 

“None of these high things, Mother. My gifts 
are love and joy; sweet love and joy in which for 
a little while all fears are forgot. Small gains thou 
mayest think, looking backward to the past and 
onward to the future, thou whose eyes are upon 
eternity. Yet they shall prevail. Isis, in Egypt 
thy day is done; there, as elsewhere, thy sceptre 
faHs.” 

“If so, Wanton, with it falls Egypt that hence¬ 
forth shall be the world’s slave. When conqueror 
after conqueror sets his foot upon her neck, then 
let her think on Isis whom she has forsaken, and 
wailing, fill her soul with thy swine’s food. Lo! I 
depart, leaving my curse on Egypt. Have thy little 
day till before the Judgment seat we settle our 
account. No more will I listen to thy falsehoods 
and thy blasphemies. Till then, Wanton, look on 
my majesty no more.” 

So in that vision spoke the Mother and was gone. 
With her, flashing like lightnings, went the flame- 


THE HALLS OF HEAVEN 


iT 

clad guardians that attend the goddess, leaving the 
great place empty save for Aphrodite and her 
throng, and for the soul of me, Ayesha, who watched 
and hearkened, wondering. The Pathian looked 
around and laughed, then glided to the vacant throne 
and seating herself thereon, laughed again, till the 
music of her mockery echoing from pillar to pillar, 
filled all the temple’s halls. 

“It is an omen,” she cried. “What Isis leaves 
I take; henceforth her seat and power are mine. 
See now my ministers, I queen it here, though I 
wear no vulture cap or symbols of the moon, whose 
brow is better graced by these abundant locks and 
whose sceptre is a flower whereof the odours make 
men mad. Yes, I queen it here as everywhere, 
though in this solemn melancholy fane I lack a 
subject.” 

She glanced about her till her glorious, roving 
eyes fell upon that spirit which was I. 

“Come hither, thou,” she said, “and do me 
homage.” 

Now in my dream I, that spirit who in the world 
am named Ayesha, came and stood before her, 
saying, 

“Nay, I am the child of Isis and to her I bow 
alone.” 

“Thinkest thou so?” she answered, smiling and 
looking me up and down. “Well, I have another 
mind. It seems to me that soon thou wilt descend 
from this sad realm to the joyous fields of earth, 
that there thou mayest fulfil a certain purpose, 
for such is the fate decreed for thee. Now, I, 
Aphrodite, add to that fate and lighten it. Look 
behind thee, Spirit that shall be woman!” 

I turned and looked, there to behold a shape of 
beauty that I knew for Man. So beautiful was he 


12 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


that my breast rose and the life in me stood still. 
He smiled at me and I smiled back at him. Then 
he was gone, leaving his picture stamped upon my 
soul. 

“This is what I add to that tragic fate of thine, 
O Spirit that shall be woman. Take him, the man 
appointed to thee, who from the beginning was 
always thine, and as perchance thou hast done be¬ 
fore, in his kiss forget thy Mother Isis and thy 
crown of woes.” 

Thus this vision ends, and though now I, 
Ayesha, have learned that Isis, as we knew and 
named her in the ancient time, is but a symbol of 
that eternal holiness which is set above all heavens 
and all earths, I say again that, as I believe, in its 
parable is hid something of the changeless truth. 


CHAPTER II 

Noot the Prophet Comes to Ozal 

Such is the vision, such the dream that has haunted 
me through the centuries, and brooding over it 
from age to age, I, Ayesha, doubt not that in its 
substance it is true, though its trappings may be 
fancy-wrought. At least this I know, that my spirit 
is the child of immortal Wisdom, such as once men 
believed that Isis held, as my undying shape is born 
of the beauty that is fabled Aphrodite’s gift. At 
least it is certain that even before I dipped me in the 
Fire of Life, the most of learning and all human 
loveliness were mine. I know also that it was my 
mission to bring Egypt to the dust, and did I not 
bring it to the dust, smiting to its heart through 
proud Sidon, and Cyprus, Aphrodite’s home? And 
have I not for these deeds borne Aphrodite’s curse, 
as, because of Aphrodite’s yoke laid upon my help¬ 
less neck, I have borne and bear the curse of Isis, I 
whose destiny it is thus at once to be the instrument 
and sport of rival powers whose battle-ground is 
the heart of every one of us. 

Alas! were my tale known, the world in its haste 
might judge me hardly and think that I, who by burn¬ 
ing its Phoenician props overturned an ancient em¬ 
pire, am cruel-natured, or that because I sought the 
love of a certain man and in my anger slew him when 
he turned from me, which in truth I did not desire 
to do, that I am wanton and ungoverned. Yet these 


13 


i 4 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

things are not so, seeing that it was Fate, not I, that 
gave Egypt to the Persian dog (whom in his turn I 
overthrew) and made of its people slaves, and my 
flesh, not I, which after I had tasted of the Fire that 
is Nature’s Soul, cursed me with passion and its 
fruits, perchance because I hated it and would never 
bow myself to it wholly, I who followed after purity, 
desiring not man’s love but Wisdom’s gifts and a 
crown of spiritual gold. 

Moreover, I had earthly and righteous warrant to 
bring about Sidon’s fall and through it that of 
Egypt, seeing that their kings would have put me 
to utter shame and robbed my father of his life, as 
shall be told. So, too, I had the warrant of a woman’s 
heart to worship the man I sought and for the death 
I brought upon him in my jealous madness my soul 
has paid full measure in remorse and tears. Still, 
since justice is hard to come by here on the earth, or 
even in the heaven above, I know that some would 

J ’udge me harshly and must bear it with the rest, 
iven Holly, and at times my Lord Leo who 
once was named Kallikrates, have cherished such 
thoughts, though their lips dare not utter them, for 
I read it in their minds which to me are as an open 
book. Therefore never shall Holly, nor my lord 
either, look upon this written truth, lest therefrom 
they might distil some poison of mistrustful doubt, 
for it is sure that all men stain the whiteness of pure 
verity to the colour of their twisted minds. There¬ 
fore, too, I write it in tongues and symbols that 
they do not understand, which yet shall be deci¬ 
phered in their season. 

As I taught Holly long ago in the caves of Kor, 
and truly, though afterward for some forgotten 
reason of my own or to give him food for thought, 
I may perhaps have changed my tale, puzzling him 


NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL 15 

with stories of great Alexander and the rest, by my 
mortal birth I am an Arabian of the purest and 
most noble blood, born in Yaman the Happy and 
in the sweet city of Ozal. My father was named 
Yarab after the great ancestor of our race, and I, 
his only child, was named Ayesha after my highborn 
mother. Of her, whom I never knew, for she was 
gathered to the bosom of whatever god she wor¬ 
shipped but one moon from my birth, this is said. 

At first she would not look on me, being angered 
because I was not a son, but at length at my father’s 
pleading she was prevailed upon to command that 
I should be brought to her. When she saw how 
fair a babe Heaven had given her, such a babe as 
had not been known or told of among our people, 
she was amazed and put up a prayer that she might 
die. This, those who knew her declared, she did 
for two reasons:—first because, foreseeing my great¬ 
ness, she desired that I alone should hold my father’s 
heart and that of all our tribe, and secondly because 
she feared lest, should she live, she might bear 
other children whom she would hate when she com¬ 
pared them to my perfectness. 

So it came about as, amongst others, my father 
told me often, that her prayer was granted and hav¬ 
ing kissed and blessed me, for a while she entered 
into rest. 

This is the true story of her end, not the other, 
which those who envied me put about in after days, 
that owing to certain revelations which came to her 
at the time of my birth, as to the deeds which I 
was doomed to do and the loves and hates which I 
was doomed to earn, my mother thought it better to 
ask death from her gods rather than to continue in 
a life which she must live out at my side. This tale, 
my father often swore to me when I asked him of 


i6 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


it, was as false as the changeful pictures which are 
seen at sunset on the desert, and sometimes at noon¬ 
day also. 

For the rest this beloved father of mine took no 
other wife while I was yet a child, fearing lest for 
her own sake, or her children’s, she should be jealous 
and maltreat me, and afterward when I became a 
maiden, because I would not suffer that another 
woman should share the rule of his household with 
me. As I showed to him, he had servants in plenty 
and these should be enough, to which he bowed his 
head and answered that without doubt my will was 
that of God. 

Thus it came about that I grew up with my 
noble father, his adviser and his strength, and 
through him, or rather with him, ruled all his great 
tribe, who always worshipped me. Be it admitted 
that from the first, or at least from the time that I 
came to womanhood, I brought him trouble as well 
as blessing, though through no fault of my own, but 
because of the beauty with which, as in those days 
I believed, Isis, or Aphrodite, or both of them, had 
endowed me for their own divine purposes. Very 
soon this beauty of mine, also my wit and knowledge, 
were noised abroad through all Arabia, so that 
princes came from far to court me, and afterward 
quarrelled and fought, for, being gentle-hearted, I 
said a kind word to everyone of them and left them 
to reason out which was the kindest. 

This, for the most part, they did with spears and 
arrows after the fashion of violent and insensate 
men, so that there was much fighting on my account, 
which made my father some enemies, because the 
people of certain of the princes who were killed 
swore that I had promised myself in marriage to 
them. This, however, I had never done, who de- 


NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL 17 

sired to marry no man that I might become a slave, 
cooped up in a fortress to bear children that I did 
not desire with some jealous tyrant for their father. 
Nay, being higher-hearted than any of my time, 
already I sought to rule the world, and if I must 
have any lover, to choose one whom I wished, and, 
when I wished, to have done with him. 

But at that time I asked no lover who myself was 
in love—with wisdom. Knowledge, I saw, was 
strength, and if I would rule, first I must learn. 
Therefore I studied deeply, taking for masters all 
the wisest in Arabia who were proud to teach Ayesha 
the Beautiful, daughter and heiress of Yarab the 
great chief who could call ten thousand spears to 
his standards, all of his own tribe; and ten thousand 
more sworn to us but not of our blood. 

I learned of the stars, a deep learning this that 
taught my soul its littleness, though it is true that 
while I studied I wondered, as still I wonder now, 
in which of them I was destined to rule when my 
day on earth was done. For always from the be¬ 
ginning I knew that wherever I am, there I must be 
the first and reign. 

Perchance I had learned this aforetime in the 
halls of Isis who then to me had seemed so great, 
though afterward contemplating those stars in the 
silence of the desert night, I came to understand 
that even the Universal Mother, as men named her 
in those far days, was herself but small, one who 
must fight for sovereignty with Aphrodite and 
other gods. 

Holly has told me much of what the astronomers 
in these latter years have won of Nature’s secrets: 
of how they number and weigh the stars, and meas¬ 
ure to a mile their infinite distance from the earth, 
and how assuredly that each of them, even the 


i8 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


farthest, is a sun as great or greater than our own, 
round which revolve worlds unseen. He has been 
astonished also, and affected to disbelieve, when I 
answered him, that we of Arabia guessed all these 
things over two thousand years ago, and indeed 
knew some of them. Yet, so it was. 

Thus communing with greatness, my soul grew 
ever greater. 

Moreover, I sought other and deeper lore. There 
wandered a certain strange man to our town, Ozal, 
where my father kept his court, if so it may be 
called, that is when we were not camping with our 
great herds in the desert, as we did at certain seasons 
of the year after the rains had caused the wilder¬ 
ness to throw up herbage. This man, named Noot, 
was always aged and white-haired, ugly to look on, 
with a curious wrinkled face of the colour of parch¬ 
ment, much such a face as that of Holly will be 
should he attain to his years. Indeed in this and 
other ways he was so like to Holly that often I 
think that in him dwells something of Noot’s spirit 
now returned again to earth, as that of Kallikrates 
has returned as Leo. 

Now this Noot, who came to Egypt none knew 
whence, for by birth he was not Egyptian, had been 
the high-priest of Isis and Kherheb or Chief Magi¬ 
cian in Egypt, one who had much power on earth and 
still more beyond the earth, since he was in touch 
with things divine. Moreover, he was an honest 
magician and told the truth even to kings, as the 
gods and his wisdom showed it to him, and this 
was the cause of his downfall, for woe betide those 
who tell the truth to kings or to any who wield the 
sceptre of their might. On a certain day Nectan- 
ebes, the first of that name, the Pharaoh of Egypt 
whom others called Nekht-nebf, after a victory 


NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL 19 

he had gained over the Persians, was filled with 
pride and took counsel with Noot, his Chief Magi¬ 
cian, bidding Noot search out the future and tell 
him of glories to come to Egypt and to the Royal 
House, after he had been gathered to Osiris, that 
thereon he might feed his soul. 

Noot answered that it was wiser to leave the 
future to care for itself and to satisfy his heart 
with the present and its joys and greatness. 

Then the Pharaoh grew wrath and bade him ful¬ 
fil his command. 

So Noot bowed and went, and alone in some tomb 
or sanctuary drew the circles, uttered the words of 
power, and called upon the gods he served to show 
him such things as should befall to Egypt and to 
Pharaoh’s House. 

The magic sleep fell upon him and in it appeared 
the Spirit of Truth and spoke to him dreadful 
words of fate and doom. These she bade him de¬ 
liver to Pharaoh, but when they were spoken to fly 
for his life’s sake from Egypt and seek out a maiden 
called Ayesha, the daughter of Yarab, the Sheik of 
Ozal, and with her take refuge since she was an 
appointed instrument of Heaven. Moreover, this 
spirit commanded him to consult the maiden Ayesha 
in everything and impart to her all his gathered 
learning and the very secrets of the gods that had 
been revealed to him, that to any other it would be 
death to speak. 

Now in the morning Noot went into the presence 
of Pharaoh who rejoiced to see him, and cried, 

“Be welcome, Kherheb, the first of all magi¬ 
cians, you that men say were born beyond the earth, 
you in whom lives the spirit of Maat, goddess of 
Truth. Tell me now what the gods have revealed 
to you as to the glories they prepare for the ancient 


20 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


land of Egypt, and the House of me the Pharaoh 
who have made her great again, driving out the 
dogs of Persians.” 

“Life! Blood! Strength! O Pharaoh!” an¬ 
swered Noot, saluting in the ancient form. “I have 
heard the word of Pharaoh who commanded me 
against my counsel to make divination and to seek 
to learn of the future from the gods. Behold! the 
gods hearkened. Behold! by the mouth of Maat, 
Lady of Truth, the goddess of the land where I 
was born, they spoke to me in the silence of the 
night. Thus they spoke. ‘Say to Nectanebes who 
impiously dares to lift the veil of Time, that because 
he has fought for Egypt against the Barbarians who 
worship other gods, it is granted to him to die in 
his bed which shall chance ere long. Say that after 
him shall come a usurper whom the Barbarians shall 
defeat, so that he dies a slave in the land of Persia. 
Say that after him the son of Pharaoh shall wear 
the Double Crown and be called by the name of 
Pharaoh, the last of the true Blood of Egypt who 
shall ever sit upon its throne. Say that this son 
of his is accursed because he is in league with evil 
spirits and has worked apostasy, putting about his 
neck the chain of Aphrodite of the Greeks and the 
chains of Baal and of Moloch which never can be 
broken. Therefore, though he make many false 
offerings, yet is he accursed and the Barbarians shall 
overcome him, so that he flees away, nor shall all his 
magic be a shield to him. Because of him Egypt 
shall fall and her cities shall be burned and her chil¬ 
dren slaughtered and her temples desecrated, and 
never more shall one of her pure and ancient blood 
hold her sceptre.’ Such is the oracle that the gods 
have commanded me to speak, O Pharaoh.” 

Now when Nectanebes heard these awful decrees 


NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL 21 


of Fate upon him and upon his son, he trembled and 
rent his robes. .Then rage took him and he reviled 
Noot the Prophet, calling him a liar and a traitor, 
and saying that he would make an end of him and 
his prophecies together. But because they were 
alone together within a chamber, before he could 
summon guards to kill him, Noot, helped of Heaven, 
fled away out of the palace and as darkness was 
falling, mingled with the throng and could not be 
found by the soldiers who sought him. 

Ere daylight he was far from the city and, dis¬ 
guised, escaped from Egypt, bringing with him only 
his Kherheb’s staff of power, also the ancient sacred 
books of spells or words of strength that were hid¬ 
den in his robes. With these he brought, moreover, 
a little ancient image of Isis which he made use of 
in his divinations and prayed before by day and 
night. 

Thus it came about awhile later, one eve when 
I, the young maiden Ayesha, stood alone in the 
desert communing with my soul and drawing wis¬ 
dom from the stars, that there appeared before me 
a withered, ancient man who, when he saw me, knelt 
down and bowed to me. I looked on him and 
asked, 

“Why, aged One, do you kneel to me who am 
but a mortal?” 

“Are you indeed a mortal?” he asked. “Me- 
thought that I who am the head-priest of Isis saw 
in you the goddess come to earth, and indeed. Lady, 
I seem to see the holy blood of Isis coursing in your 
veins.” 

“It is true, Priest, that of this goddess whom 
my mother worshipped I have dreams and memo¬ 
ries and that sometimes she seems to speak with me 


22 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


in sleep, yet I tell you that I am but a mortal, the 
daughter of Yarab the far-famed,” I answered to 
him. 

“Then you are that maiden whom I am com¬ 
manded to seek, she who is named Ayesha. Know, 
Lady, that great is your destiny, greater than that 
of any king, and that it is revealed to me that you 
will become immortal.” 

“All who believe on the gods trust to find the 
pearl, Immortality, beneath Death’s waters, O 
Priest.” 

“Yes, Lady, but the immortality that is foretold 
for you is different and begins upon the earth, and 
I confess that I understand it not, though perhaps 
it may be an immortality of fame.” 

“Nor I, Priest. But meanwhile, what would you 
of me?” 

“Shelter and food, Lady.” 

“And what can you offer for these, Priest?” 

“Learning, Lady.” 

“That I think I have already.” 

“Nay, Lady Ayesha, not such learning as I can 
give; the knowledge of the secrets of the gods; 
spells that will sway the hearts of kings, magic that 
will show things afar and call ghosts from the 
grave, power that will set him who wields it upon 
the pinnacle of worship-” 

“Stay!” I broke in. “You are old and ugly! you 
are tired, your foot bleeds, you seek protection, and 
it seems to me that you need food. How comes it 
that one who can command so much lore and power 
is in want of such things as these that the humblest 
peasant does not lack, and must seek to purchase 
them with flatteries?” 

When he heard these words, of a sudden the 
aspect of that old man changed. To me his shrunken 



NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL 23 

body seemed to swell, his face grew fierce and set, 
and a strange light shone in his deep eyes. 

“Maiden,” he said in another voice, “I perceive 
that you are in truth in need of such a teacher as 
I am. Had you the inner wisdom, you would not 
judge by the outward appearance and you would 
know that ofttimes the gods bring misfortunes 
upon those they love in order that thereby they may 
work their ends. Beauty is yours, wit is yours, and 
a great destiny awaits you, though with it, as I 
think, great sorrow. Yet one thing is lacking to 
you—humility—and that you must learn beneath 
the rods of destiny. But of these matters we will 
talk afterward. Meanwhile, as you say, I need 
food and shelter, which are necessary to all while 
still they labour in the flesh. Lead me to your 
father!” 

Without more talk though not without fear, I 
guided this strange wanderer to our tents, for at 
the time we were camping in the desert, and into 
the presence of my father, Yarab, who gave him 
hospitality after the Arab fashion, but save for the 
common words of courtesy, held no converse with 
him that night. 

On the following morning before we struck our 
camp, however, they had much speech together, and 
at the end of it I was summoned to the great tent. 

“Daughter,” said my father, pointing to the wan¬ 
derer who was seated cross-legged on a carpet 
before him after the fashion of an Egyptian scribe, 
“I have questioned this learned man, our guest. I 
discover from him that he is the First Magician of 
Egypt, the head-priest also of the greatest goddess 
of that land, she whom your mother worshipped. 
At least, he says he was these things—but now, hav- 


24 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


ing quarrelled with Pharaoh, that he is nothing but 
a beggar, which is a strange state for a magician. 
Also, according to his tale, Pharaoh seeks his life, 
as he declares, because of certain prophecies that he 
made to him concerning the fate of Egypt and of 
Pharaoh’s House. It seems that he desires to abide 
here with us and to impart his wisdom to you, which 
wisdom, it is evident, has brought him to an evil 
case. Now I ask you, as one gifted with discretion 
beyond your years, what answer shall I return to 
him? If I keep this Noot here, for that he tells 
me, in his name, though of his race and country he 
will say nothing, perchance Pharaoh, whose arm is 
long, will come to seek him and bring war upon us, 
and if I send him away, perchance I turn my back 
upon a messenger from the gods. What then shall 
I do?” 

“Ask him, my Father; seeing that one who proph¬ 
esies evil to the Pharaoh to his own ruin must be 
a truthful man.” 

Then my father stroked his long beard, being 
perplexed, and inquired of the wanderer whether 
he should keep him or send him away. 

Noot replied that he thought that my father 
would do well to send him away, but better to keep 
him. He said that he had no revelation on the 
matter, though if it were wished he would seek one, 
but he believed that although his presence might 
bring trouble, from his dismissal would come yet 
worse trouble. He added that in a vision he had 
been commanded by the goddess Isis to find out a 
certain Lady Ayesha and become her instructor in 
mysteries that the purposes of Heaven might be ful¬ 
filled, and that it was ill to flout goddesses whose 
arms were even longer than those of Pharaoh. 

Now for the second time my father who did noth- 


NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL 25 

mg great or small without my counsel, asked my 
judgment on this matter after I had heard the 
words o( Noot. I pondered, remembering what 
the wanderer had promised to me in the desert, 
namely, knowledge and the secrets of the gods, also 
spells that would sway the hearts of kings, with the 
gifts of magic and of power. At length I answered, 

“To what end is all this empty talk, my Father? 
Has not this stranger eaten of your bread and salt 
and is it the custom of our people to drive away 
from their doors for no fault those to whom they 
have given hospitality?” 

“True,” said my father. “If he were to be sent 
hence, it should have been done at once. Abide in 
my shadow, Noot, and pray your god§ tQ bring a 
blessing on me.” 

So Noot, the priest and prophet, remained with 
us and from the first day of his coming, opened out 
to my eager eyes all the scrolls of his secret lore. 
Still it is true that he brought to my father, not 
blessing but death, as shall be told, though this did 
not come for many moons. 

Meanwhile he taught and I learned, for his 
knowledge flowed into my soul like a river into the 
desert and filled its thirsty sand with life. Of all 
that I learned from him, because of the oaths I 
swore, even now it is not lawful that I should write, 
but it is true that in those years of study I grew 
near to the gods and wrested many a secret from 
the clenched hands of Nature. 

Moreover, though as yet I did not take the vows, 
I became a votary of Isis, as Noot, her high-priest, 
had authority to make me, and one of the inner 
circle. Yes, I determined even then that I would 
forswear marriage and all fleshly joys and make to 


26 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

Isis the offering of my life, while she through her 
priest vowed to me in return such power and wisdom 
as had scarce been given to any woman before me. 

Thus the time went by till at length fell the blow 
and I—for all my wisdom—never heard Aphrodite 
laughing behind her veil. Nor indeed did Noot, 
but then he was an old man who, as I drew out of 
him, save those of his mother, had not once touched 
a woman’s lips. All learning was his, but it seemed 
that in his search for it there were some things he 
had passed by. At least so I believed, or rather 
half-believed, at this time, but as I learned after¬ 
ward, there are matters upon which even the most 
holy think it no shame to lie, since in the end Noot 
confessed to me that in his youth he had been as are 
other men. Also I think that he heard the laughter 
of Aphrodite, though I did not. However these 
things may be, as I was to discover afterward, 
Mother Isis is a stern mistress to whoever looks the 
other way. 

Also, although Noot told me much, he hid more. 
Not for many a year was I to learn that he was a 
citizen of the ancient, ruined land of Kor and the 
only one who knew the fearful mystery it hid, which 
in a far day to come he was commanded to reveal 
to me, Ayesha, and to no other man or woman. 
Nor did he tell me that it was the purpose of Heaven 
that under her other shape and name of Truth I 
should again establish the worship of Isis in that 
land and once more make of it a queen of the world. 
Yet these things were so and therefore was he sent 
to me and for no other reason. Therefore was he 
commanded to reveal the doom of Egypt to Nec- 
tanebes, that this Pharaoh in his wrath might drive 
him, a wanderer, to our tents at Ozal there to 
dwell for years and instruct me, the chosen, in all 


NOOT THE PROPHET COMES TO OZAL 27 

things that I must learn, so that when at last the 
appointed hour dawned, I might be fitted for my 
mighty task. 

But all this while Aphrodite laughed on behind 
her veil! 


CHAPTER III. 

The Battle and the Flight 

In the end trouble came upon us thus. As I have 
said already, my beauty was the talk of men through¬ 
out Arabia, and of women also, who were jealous 
of it, since those who travelled in caravans bore 
its fame from tribe to tribe and those who sailed 
upon the sea took up the report and carried it to dis¬ 
tant ^hores. But now to this tale was added another, 
namely that the wearer of so much loveliness was 
also a vessel into which the gods had poured all 
their wisdom, so that there were few marvels which 
she could not work and little or nothing that she 
did not know. It was added, truly enough, that the 
channel through which this wisdom flowed into her 
heart was a certain Noot who aforetime had been 
Kherheb in Egypt and high-priest of Isis. 

Presently this tale, carried by the mariners, came 
to the ears of the Pharaoh Nectanebes in his city 
of Sais, who knew well enough that Noot was the 
prophet whom he had driven from the land and 
whom by now he desired to have back again, for his 
inspired counsel’s sake. 

The end of it was that the Pharaoh sent an 
embassy to my father, Yarab, demanding that I 
should be given to him or to his son, the young 
Nectanebes, I know not which, in marriage, and that 
Noot should return to Egypt as my guardian, and 
there be reinstated in all his offices. 

My father answered, speaking with my voice, that 

28 


THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT 


29 


least of anything did I desire to become one of the 
women of Pharaoh, a man already near the grave, 
or even of Pharaoh’s son, I who was a free-born 
Arabian, and that as for Noot, his head felt safer 
on his shoulders in Ozal where he was an honoured 
guest, than it would at Pharaoh’s court. 

These words Nectanebes took ill, so ill indeed 
that, for this and other reasons of policy, he sent 
an army to invade Yaman the Happy, and to cap¬ 
ture me and kill Noot, or drag him away to Egypt 
in chains. Of all these plans we had warnings, 
partly through the priests of Isis in Egypt who still 
acknowledged Noot as their head, although another 
had been raised up in his place and filled his office, 
and partly through dreams and revelations that 
came to him from Heaven. Therefore we made 
ready and gathered in great strength to fight against 
Pharaoh. 

At length his hosts came, borne for the most part 
in ships of Cyprus and of Sidon whereof at that 
time the kings were his allies, or rather vassals. 

They landed upon a plain by the seashore and 
watching from our hills beyond, we suffered them to 
land. But that night, or rather just before the 
following dawn when their camp was still unforti¬ 
fied, we poured down upon them from our hills. 
Great was the fray! for they fought well. I led 
the horsemen of our tribe in this, my first battle, 
and by the light of the rising sun charged again and 
yet again into the heart of the hosts of Pharaoh, 
having no fear since I knew well that none could 
harm me. 

There was a certain company of Greeks, two 
thousand of them perhaps, who served Pharaoh, and 
in the centre of them was his general, which com¬ 
pany stood firm when the others fled. Thrice we 


30 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


attacked it with the horsemen and thrice were 
beaten back. Then my father came to my aid with 
his picked kinsmen mounted upon camels. Again 
we charged and this time broke through. Those 
about Pharaoh’s general saw me and strove to 
make me captive, hoping to carry me back to him, 
whatever happened to the host. They surrounded 
me, one caught the bridle of my horse. Him I slew 
with a javelin, but others snatched at me. Then 
I cried to Isis and I think that she clothed me in 
some garment of her majesty, since foes fell away 
in front of me, calling out— 

“This is a goddess, not a woman!” 

Yet I was cut oh, ringed round by them, for all 
my companions were slain or driven back. 

They pressed in on me to take me living, till I 
was hedged in with a ring of swords. My father 
appeared mounted on his swift white dromedary 
that was called Desert Wind, followed by others. 
They broke through the ring and there was a fierce 
fight. My father fell, pierced by the spear of the 
general of the Egyptians. I saw it and, filled with 
madness, I charged at that general and drove my 
javelin through his throat, so that he fell also. 
Then a cry went up and the host of Pharaoh melted 
away, flying for the ships. Some gained them, but 
the most remained dead upon the shore or were 
taken captive. 

Thus ended that battle and such was the answer 
that we of Ozal sent to Pharaoh Nectanebes. 
Therefore it was also that because of the death of 
my beloved father at their hands I hated Egypt, 
and not only Egypt but Cyprus and Sidon in whose 
ships her hosts had been borne to attack us, yes, 
and swore to be avenged upon them all, which oath 
I kept to the full. 


THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT 


3i 


Now my father being dead, I, the daughter of 
\ arab, became ruler of our tribe in his place with 
Noot for my counsellor. For certain years I 
ruled it well. Yet troubles arose—in this fashion. 
By now the fame of my glory and loveliness had 
spread through all the earth, so that, more even 
than before, I was beset with demands for my hand 
from chiefs and kings who went well-nigh mad when 
I refused them. In the end, being brothers in their 
grief because I would have none of them, I whom 
they called by the names of Hathor and Aphrodite 
and other goddesses famed for beauty according to 
their separate worships, they made a great con¬ 
spiracy together and sent envoys bearing a message. 
This was the message:— 

That unless my people would give me up so that 
my husband might be chosen from among their 
number by the casting of lots, they would join their 
armies together and fall upon us and kill out our 
tribe so that not one remained to look upon the sun, 
save myself alone, who should then be the reward of 
him who could take me. 

Now when I heard this I was filled with rage and 
having caused those messengers to be scourged be¬ 
fore me, sent them back to their masters bearing my 
defiance. But when they were gone, the elders of 
the tribe came to me and said through their spokes¬ 
man, 

“O Daughter of Yarab, O Ayesha the Wise and 
Lovely, we adore you as one beyond price. Yet 
it is true that we love our wives and children and 
desire to live, not to die. How can we who are but 
few stand against so many kings? We pray you, 
therefore, Ayesha, to choose one of them to be 
your husband, for then because of jealousy doubt¬ 
less they will destroy each other and we, your ser- 


32 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


vants, shall be left in peace. Or if you will not 
marry, then we pray you to hide your beauty else¬ 
where for a while, so that the kings do not come to 
seek it here.” 

I hearkened and was angry because of the coward¬ 
ice of this people who set their own welfare above 
my will and refused to fight with those who threat¬ 
ened me. Still, being politic, I hid my mind and 
said that I would consider and give them an answer 
on the third day. Then I took counsel of Noot and 
together we made divinations and prayed to the 
gods, but most of all to Isis. 

The end of it was that before the dawn on the 
second day a small caravan of five camels might 
have been seen, had there been any to watch, leav¬ 
ing the city of Ozal and heading for the sea. 

On the first of those camels sat an old merchant. 
On the second his wife or his daughter, or his 
woman, heavily veiled. On the three others was 
his merchandise. Woven carpets it seemed to be, 
though if opened, those carpets would have proved 
to be filled with a very great treasure in gold and 
pearls and sapphires and other gems, which for 
generations had been gathered together by my 
father, Yarab, and those who went before him out 
of the profits of their trade and of their flocks and 
herds, and hid away against the time of need. 

That merchant was Noot the priest and prophet, 
and that woman was I—Ayesha. That treasure 
was mine and the camels were led by certain men 
who had served my father and now served me, be¬ 
ing sworn to me by secret oaths that might not be 
broken. 

We gained the sea and took ship to Egypt in a 
vessel that I had caused to be prepared. Yes, be¬ 
fore we were missed the coast of Arabia was behind 


THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT 


33 


us, since I had given it out that I had gone to a secret 
place to consider of my answer to the elders of the 
people. As I heard afterward, when it was known 
that I had turned my back on them, there were woe 
and lamentations in every household of the tribe. 
Understanding what they had lost the men among 
them beat their breasts and wept, though it is said 
that some of the women rejoiced, because I out¬ 
shone them all and they were jealous of me. 

Afterward the kings and chiefs of whom I have 
spoken descended upon them to seek me, where¬ 
upon my people swore that I had been changed into 
a goddess and gone up into heaven. Some believed 
this, declaring that they had always held me to be 
more than mortal, but others of a coarser, common 
mind declared that I had been hidden away, and 
falling on the tribe, dispersed it, seizing many and 
selling them into slavery. 

Thus then did the children of Yarab pay the price 
of their treachery to me, though I have heard that 
afterward once more they became a people under 
the rule of some baseborn grandson of my father, 
and worshipped me as a guardian goddess from 
generation to generation, having come to believe 
that I was not a woman, but a spirit whom the gods 
sent to dwell with them for a while. 

So Noot and I came safely to Naukratis, a Gre¬ 
cian city upon the Canopic mouth of the Nile, and 
there abode disguised as a merchant and his daugh¬ 
ter trading in precious stones and other costly 
wares, and thus adding to my wealth, though of 
this there was little need, since already it was great. 

It was here that for the first time I went veiled in 
the Eastern fashion, in order to hide my beauty 
from the eyes of men. 


34 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

Under cover of this trade I and Noot lived for 
two years or more while I studied the lore and 
language of the Egyptians, learning to read their 
picture-writing which the Greeks called heiroglyphs, 
and mastering their history. Also I perfected my¬ 
self in the Grecian tongue and read the works of 
their great writers as well as those of the Romans. 
Moreover, I learned other things, since at the be¬ 
ginning of the second year Nectanebes, the Pharaoh 
who had sought me in marriage, being now dead, and 
Egypt for a while in the hands of the usurper Zehir, 
who some say was his son born of a concubine, we 
travelled up the Nile disguised and came to the 
ancient city of Thebes. This we did slowly, stopping 
at every great town, where we received the hospi¬ 
tality of the head priests of the various gods, Am¬ 
mon, Ptah, and the rest, since to these priests Noot 
by secret signs revealed himself. Indeed the news 
of our coming was passed on before us so that 
always we found some waiting to welcome us who, 
once within the temple walls, were treated like the 
greatest, although we were garbed as humble trav¬ 
ellers. All of these priests we found full of rage, 
both because the gods of the Greeks, and even of 
the Persians and Sidonians, were being set above 
their own, and still more for the reason that their 
revenues were seized and used to pay Grecian mer¬ 
cenaries, so that they who had been very rich were 
now poor and the gods lacked their offerings, nor 
could their holy temples be repaired. 

Of all these things I took note whose heart was 
set upon one thing only,—to bring about the fall of 
the Egyptians and their allies that had slain my 
father whom I loved, as indeed I was fated to do. 
Therefore by a word here and a word there I blew 
the anger that smouldered in them to flame, hinting 


THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT 35 

of rebellion and the setting up of a new dynasty in 
Egypt, of which at that time I thought to be the 
first, a priestess-queen, Isis-come-to-Earth. Of this 
plan I hinted also through the mouth of Noot, nor 
was it ill received, since already those priests to 
whom he had told my history and the revelations 
that had come to him concerning me, looked on me 
as something more than woman. Could a mortal 
maid, they asked, have so much beauty and so much 
learning; was I not in truth a goddess clothed in 
woman’s flesh? 

Only on the road I purposed to tread there was 
this stumbling block, that each of those high-priests 
desired that he himself, or at least one who wor¬ 
shipped his god, were it Ammon or Osiris or Ptah, 
or Khonsu, should be the Pharaoh of that new dy¬ 
nasty. For they were jealous each of the other and 
could not agree together, as is common among rival 
priests. 

We passed on to Thebes where I saw the wonders 
of the mighty temples which stood there reared by a 
hundred kings, which Holly tells me now are but 
ruins, though the great hall of columns among which 
I used to wander still stands in part. Also I crossed 
the Nile and visited the tombs of the Pharaohs. 

Standing beneath the moon in that desolate 
Valley of Dead Kings, for the first time, I think I 
came to know all the littleness of Life and of the 
vanities of earth. Life, I saw, was but a dream; its 
ambitions and its joys were naught but dust. Those 
kings and those queens, some of them had been very 
great in their day; the people worshipped them as 
gods and when they stretched out their sceptres, the 
world trembled. And now what were they? But 
names, if so much as a name remained of them. 

I saw a great queen whose tomb some while before 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


36 

had been broken into by robbers, Persians or 
Greeks I was told. They had unrolled her mummy 
and stripped her of her royal ornaments and there 
she lay, she in whom had centred all the world’s 
pomp, a little black and withered thing, grinning at 
us from the dust, like a dead ape, a sight so strange 
and unhuman that the priest who guided us, a 
coarse fellow, broke into laughter. I remembered 
that laugh and afterward paid him back for it, 
though he never knew whence his misfortune came. 

I, Ayesha, have many sins to my count and at that 
time was full of faults, as perchance still I am 
to-day. Thus I was proud of my beauty and my 
genius which were given to me above any other 
woman; passionate and revengeful, too, and led on 
by ambitions. Yet this I swear by all the gods of 
all the heavens, that ever in my secret self I have set 
the spirit above the flesh and desired to attain to 
another glory than that of earth. From the flesh 
came my sins, because it was begotten of other flesh 
and the flesh is sin incarnate. Yet my soul sins not, 
because it comes from that which is sinless and, its 
tasks accomplished here, laden with knowledge and 
purified by suffering, to this holy fount at last it 
shall return again. At the least such are my faith 
and hope. 

So it came about that there in the Valley of Dead 
Kings I swore myself to the worship of God (since 
all the gods are one God) and to use the world as 
a ladder whereby I might climb nearer to His 
throne. 

Thus I swore with old Noot for witness, noting 
that he shook his wise head and smiled a little at the 
oath. For if I forgot Aphrodite and the flesh, he 
remembered them, or perchance he to whom the 
Future spoke already guessed something of my 


THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT 37 

fate which it was not lawful that he should tell. 
Also at that time I knew nothing of that everlasting 
King of Fire who dwells in majesty beneath the 
rocks of Kor, nor of his evil gifts. Least of all did 
I know that Noot himself was by inheritance and 
appointment the guardian of the Fire. 

From Thebes we passed up Nile to Philae on 
the Isle of Elephantine, where Mother Isis had her 
holy sanctuary, and Nectanebes, the first of that 
name, he who had sought me as a wife and now was 
not long dead, had begun to build a temple of sur¬ 
passing beauty to the goddess, which temple was 
completed in my time by his son, the second Nec¬ 
tanebes, he with whom I had to do and brought to 
nothingness. 

Here I abode a year making final preparations 
utterly to vow myself to the goddess. I kept the 
fasts, I purified my heart, I passed the trials and at 
length alone I seemed to die and descended into the 
gulf of death and fled through the Halls of Death 
pursued by terrors, till I saw, or dreamed I saw, the 
goddess in her glory and fell swooning at her feet. 
More I may not say, even now that over two thou¬ 
sand years have passed since that holy hour of fears 
and victory, save this one thing which indeed has 
come to pass. When I arose from that swoon cer¬ 
tain words were written on my mind, though 
whether the goddess whom I seemed to see or some 
spirit spoke them to me I do not know. These were 
the words:— 

“Far to the south in this land of Libya beyond 
the region of Punt, is an ancient city, whence my 
worship came ere Egypt had a people. Thither, 
Daughter of Isis, shalt thou bear it back and there 
shalt thou blow upon it with thy breath and keep 
alive the holy spark that at last is doomed to die 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


38 

upon the earth amidst those snows which as yet no 
southern foot has trod. There, Daughter, in that 
fallen and deserted land, my prophet Noot shall 
welcome thee. There shall he guard the Door of 
Life which of mortal women thou alone shalt 
pass. There shalt thou stain thy hands with blood, 
and there in solitude amidst the tombs, with tears 
from thy repentant eyes, shalt thou wash thy sin 
away. Yet of the seed that thou sowest in fire in 
the womb of the world, thou shalt reap the harvest 
upon the mountain tops amidst the snows.” 

Such were the words branded upon my memory 
when I awoke from the swoon after the night of 
trial. Later I repeated them to Noot, my Master, 
praying him to read their meaning, which either he 
could not or would not do. He said, however, it 
was true that far to the south there stood a great 
city, now a ruin sparsely peopled, whence came the 
first forefathers of the Egyptians thousands of 
years before the pyramids were built. He said also 
that he knew the road to that city by sea and by land, 
though how he knew it he would not tell. Nor 
would he interpret the rest of those dream words. 
Yet, when I harassed him with questions he said 
carelessly, as one who hazards a guess, that per¬ 
chance the goddess meant that it would be my lot 
after its fall or corruption in Egypt, to bear back 
her worship to this its earlier home and there estab¬ 
lish a great nation of her servants. As to the “Door 
of Life” that I alone could pass, of which he was 
named the Guardian, and the “northern snows,” he 
declared that he knew not what was meant by them, 
but doubtless these things would be made clear in 
their season. 

So he spoke somewhat lightly, like one who 
humours a frightened child, as though he would 


THE BATTLE AND THE FLIGHT 


39 


make me think that I had but dreamed a dream. 
This indeed I came to believe, as is the fashion of 
mankind concerning things that they cannot see or 
handle, however real those things may appear in 
the hour of their experience. For these in the end 
always we write down as dreams, such as haunt us 
by the thousand in our sleep. 

Yet now that two thousand years have gone by, 
I know that this dream was true. For is there not 
a city called Kor and was I not there doomed to 
find the Door of Life whereof Noot was guardian? 
And did I not sin there and from generation to 
generation wash the shed blood from off my hands 
with tears of bitterest repentance, and afterward 
expiate that sin in loss and shame and agony? And 
lastly do I not reap that harvest of tears upon the 
mountain tops amidst the northern snows whither 
the spirit bore me, still holding in those hands the 
embers of the worship of that regnant Good who 
to us of the ancient world was known as the Univer¬ 
sal Mother to whom I swore myself in Phiiae’s 
temples? 

But enough of these things now; let them be 
spoken of in their season. 


CHAPTER IV 
The Kiss of Fate 

There came a man to Philae. Watching from a 
pylon top whither I had gone to pray alone, I saw 
him land upon the island and from far off noted 
that he was a godlike man, clad in armour such as 
the Grecians used, over which was thrown a common 
cloak, hooded as though to disguise him; one who 
had the air of a warrior. At a distance from the 
temple gate he halted and looked upward as though 
something drew his glance to me standing high 
above him upon the pylon top. I could not see his 
face because of the shadow thrown by the great 
walls behind which the sun was sinking, but doubt¬ 
less he could see me well enough, whose shape was 
outlined against the veil of golden light that must 
have touched me with its glory, though, as that 
light was behind me, my face also would be hidden 
from him. At least he stood a little while as though 
amazed, staring upward steadily, then bowed his 
head and passed into the temple, followed by men 
bearing burdens. 

Some pilgrim to the shrine, I thought to myself, 
then turned my mind to other matters, remembering 
that with men I had no more to do. Thus for the 
first time here in the body, all unknowing, I looked 
upon Kallikrates and he looked on me, but often 
afterward I have thought that there was a veiled 
lesson or a parable in the fashion of this meeting. 

For did I not stand far above him, clothed in the 


40 


THE KISS OF FATE 


4i 


glory of heaven’s gold, and did he not stand far 
beneath in the gloom of the shadows that lay upon 
the lowly earth, so that between us there was space 
unclimbable? And has it not been ever thus 
throughout the centuries, for am I not still upon 
the pylon top clad in the splendour of the spirit, 
and is he not still far beneath me wrapped with the 
shadows of the flesh? And since as yet the secret 
of the pylon stair is hidden from him, must I not 
descend to earth if we would meet, leaving the 
light and my pride of place that I may walk humbly 
with him in the shadow? And is it not often so 
between those that love, that one is set far above the 
other, though still this rope of love draws them to¬ 
gether, uplifting the one, or dragging down the 
other ? 

The man passed into the temple and that night I 
heard he was a Grecian captain of high blood, one 
who though young had seen much service in the 
wars and done great deeds, Kallikrates by name, 
who had come to seek the counsel of the goddess, 
bringing precious gifts of gold and Eastern silks, 
the spoil of battles in which he had fought. 

I asked why such an one sought the wisdom of 
Isis, and was told that it w r as because his heart was 
troubled. It seemed that he had been dwelling at 
Pharaoh’s court as a captain of the Grecian guard, 
and that there he had quarrelled with and slain one 
who was as a brother to him, if indeed he were not 
his very brother. This ill deed, it was said, preyed 
upon his soul and drove him into the arms of 
Mother Isis, seeking for pardon and that comfort 
which he could not find at the hand of any of the 
gods of the Greeks. 

Again I asked idly enough why this Kallikrates 
had killed his familiar friend or his brother, which- 


42 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


ever it might be. The answer was—because of 
some highly placed maiden whom both of them 
loved, so that they fought from jealousy, after the 
fashion of men. For this reason the life of Kal- 
likrates was held to be forfeit according to the stern 
military law of the Grecian soldiers, and he must 
fly. Also the deed had tarnished that great lady’s 
name; also his heart was broken with remorse and 
hither he came to pray Isis to mend it of her mercy, 
he who had forsaken the world. 

The tale moved me a little, but again I cast it 
from my mind, for are not such things common 
among men? Always the story is the same: two 
men and a woman, or two women and a man, and 
bloodshed and remorse and memories which will not 
die and the cry for pardon that is so hard to find. 

Yes, I cast it from my mind, saying lightly—oh! 
those evil-omened words—that doubtless his own 
blood in a day to come would pay for that which he 
had spilt. 

For a while, some months indeed, this Grecian 
Kallikrates vanished from my sight and even from 
my thoughts, save when, from time to time, I heard 
of him as studying the Mysteries among the priests, 
having, it was said, determined to renounce the 
world and be sworn to the service of the goddess. 
Noot told me that he was very earnest in this design 
and made great progress in the faith, which pleased 
the priests who desired above all things to convert 
those that served Grecian gods with whom the 
deities of Egypt, and above all Isis, were at war. 
Therefore they hastened his preparation so that as 
soon as might be he should be bound to the Heavenly 
Queen by bonds that could not be loosed. 

At length his fasts and instruction were com- 


THE KISS OF FATE 


43 


pleted; his trials had been passed and the hour came 
when he must make his last confession to the god¬ 
dess and swear the awful oaths to her very self. 

Now since Isis did not descend to earth to stand 
face to face with every neophyte, it was needful in 
this great ceremony that one filled with her spirit 
should take her place and as may be guessed, that 
one was I, Ayesha the Arab. To speak truth, in all 
Egypt, because of my beauty, my learning, and the 
grace that was given to me, there was none so fitting 
to wear her mantle as myself. Indeed afterward 
this was acknowledged when, with a single voice, the 
Colleges of her servants throughout the land, men 
and women together, promoted me to be her high- 
priestess, and gave me, who aforetime among them 
was known by the title of Wisdom’s Daughter, the 
new name of Isis-come-to-earth, or in shorter words, 
The Isis. For my own name of Ayesha I kept hid 
lest it should be discovered that I was that chief- 
tainess, the child of Yarab, who had defeated the 
army of Nectanebes. 

Therefore at a certain hour of the night, draped 
in the holy robes, wearing on my brow the vulture 
cap and the bent symbol of the moon, holding in my 
hand the sistrum and the cross of Life, I was con¬ 
ducted to the pillared sanctuary and seated alone 
upon the throne of blackest marble, with the round 
symbol of the world for my footstool. 

Thus, having learned my part and the ancient 
hallowed words that I must say, I sat awhile won¬ 
dering in my heart whether Isis herself could be 
more glorious or more fair. So indeed did the 
priests and priestesses who saw me thus arrayed and 
bent the knee to me as though I were the very god¬ 
dess, which in truth many of the humbler among 
them half believed. 


44 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Thus I sat in the moonlight that flowed from the 
unroofed hall beyond, while the carven gods watched 
me with their quiet eyes. 

At length I heard the sound of footsteps whereon 
there came a priestess and flung over me the white 
veil of innocence sewn with golden stars that until 
the appointed moment must hide Isis from her wor¬ 
shipper. The priestess withdrew and, wrapped in 
the dark, hooded robe that signified the stained 
flesh about to be cast away, which hid all of him so 
that his face could not be seen, came that tall neo¬ 
phyte led by two priests who held his right hand 
and his left. I noted those hands because they 
were so white against the blackness of the robe, and 
even by the moonlight saw that they were beautiful, 
long and thin and shapely, though the palm of one, 
the right, was somewhat broadened as though by 
long handling of the tools of war. 

The priests led him to the entrance of the shrine 
and in hushed whispers bade him kneel upon a foot¬ 
stool and make his sacrifice and confession to the 
goddess as he had been taught to do. Then they de¬ 
parted leaving us alone. 

There followed silence which at 
whispering, 

“Who is this that comes to visit the Mother in her 
earthly shrine and what is his prayer to the Queen 
of Heaven and Earth?” 

Though I spoke so gently and so low, perhaps 
because of their very sweetness, my words seemed 
to frighten him, or perhaps he believed that he 
stood in the very presence of the goddess; at least 
he answered in a voice that trembled, 

“O holy Queen adored, in the world I was named 
Kallikrates the comely. But the priests, O Queen, 
have given me a new name, and it is, Lover-of-Isis.” 


length I broke, 


THE KISS OF FATE 


45 


“And what have you to say to Isis, O Lover-of- 
Isis?” 

“O Queen eternal, I have to tell my sins and ask 
her pardon for them, I who have passed the Trials 
and am accepted by her servants. If it is granted, 
then to her I must make the oath, binding myself 
eternally to love and serve her, her and no other in 
heaven or on earth.” 

“Set out those sins, O Lover-of-Isis, that my 
Majesty may judge of them, whether they can be 
forgiven or are beyond forgiveness,” I answered in 
the words of the appointed ritual. 

Then he began and told a tale that made me red¬ 
den behind my veil, for all of it had to do with 
women, and never before had I learned what wan¬ 
tons those Greeks could be. Also he told of men 
whom he had slain in war, one of them in the battle 
against my tribe, in which strangely enough it seemed 
he had fought as a lad, for this man was a 
great warrior. Of these killings, however, I took no 
account, because they had been of those who were 
the enemies of himself or of his cause. 

In stern silence I listened, noting that save for 
these matters of light love and fightings, the man 
seemed innocent enough, for in his story there was 
naught of baseness or of betrayal. Moreover, it 
seemed that he was one in whom the spirit had 
striven against the flesh, and who, however much 
his feet were tangled in the poisonous snares of 
earth, from time to time had set his eyes on 
Heaven. 

At length he paused and I asked of him, 

“Is the black count finished? Tell now the truth 
and dare to hold nothing back from the goddess 
who notes all.” 

“Nay, O Queen,” he answered, “the worst is yet 


4b 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


to come. I came to Egypt as a captain of the 
Grecian guard that watches the House of Pharaoh 
at Sais. With me came another man, my half- 
brother, for our father was the same, with whom I 
was brought up and loved as never I loved any 
other man, and who loved me. He was a glorious 
warrior, though some held that I was more hand¬ 
some in my person, Tisisthenes by name, that in my 
Grecian tongue in which I speak means the Aven¬ 
ger. Thus was he called because my father, whose 
first-born he was, desired that he might grow up to 
work vengeance upon the Persians who slew his 
father named like myself, Kallikrates, the most 
beauteous Spartan that was ever born. Foully 
they slew him before the battle of Platasa, whilst he 
was aiding the great Pausanius to make sacrifice to 
the gods. This Tisisthenes my brother I killed 
with my own hand.” 

“For what cause did you kill him?” 

“There was a royal maiden at that court, one 
fairer than any woman has been, is, or will be—ask 
not her name, O Mother, though doubtless it is 
known to you already. This lady both of us 
saw at the same time and by the decree of Aphrodite 
both of us loved. As it chanced it was I who won 
her favour, not my brother. We were spied upon; 
the tale was told; trouble fell upon that royal 
maiden who, when she should be old enough, was 
sworn in marriage to a distant king. To save her 
name she made denial, as she must do. She swore 
there was naught between her and me, and to prove 
it turned her face from me and toward my brother. 
I came upon them together in a garden. She had 
plucked a flower which she gave to him and he kissed 
the hand that held the flower. She saw me and 
fled away. I, maddened with jealousy, smote my 


THE KISS OF FATE 


47 


beloved brother in the face and forced him to fight 
with me. We fought. He guarded himself but 
ill, as though he cared nothing of the end of that 
fray. I cut him down. He lay before me dying, 
but ere he died, he spoke: 

“ ‘This is a very evil business,’ he said. ‘Know, 
Kallikrates, my most beloved brother, that what you 
saw in the garden between that royal maid and my¬ 
self was but a plot to save you both, since thereby I 
purposed to take on to my own head the weight of 
your transgression against the law of this land, be- 
cause r she prayed it and it was my wish. This I have 
done, and for this reason I suffered you to slay me, 
though during that fight twice I could have pierced 
you, because you were blinded with rage and forgot 
your swordsmanship. Now it will be said that you 
found me pursuing this royal maiden and rightly slew 
me according to your duty and that it was I who 
loved her and not you, as has been commonly re¬ 
ported. Yet in truth I love her well and am glad 
to die because it was to you that her heart turned 
and not to me; also because thereby I save both her 
and you. Yet, Kallikrates, my brother, the gods 
give me wisdom and foresight in this the hour of my 
death, and I say that you will do well to have done 
with this lady and all women, and to seek rest in the 
bosom of the gods, since, if you do not, great 
trouble will come upon you, and through this same 
curse of jealousy such a death as mine shall be 
yours also. Now let us who are the victims of 
Fate kiss each other on the brow as we used to do 
when we were children, playing together in the 
happy fields of Greece, from whom death was yet 
a long way off, forgiving each other all and hoping 
that we may meet once more in the region of the 
Shades.’ 


48 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“So we embraced, and my brother Tisisthenes 
gave up his spirit in my arms and looking on him I 
wished that I were dead in his place. Then as I 
turned to go the soldiers of our company found me 
and seeing that I had slain my "brother, would have 
brought me to trial, not because we had fought to¬ 
gether, but because he was my superior in rank .and 
therefore I who, being under his command, drew 
sword on him, by the law of the Greeks, must die. 
Yet before I could be put upon my trial, some of 
those who loved me and guessed the truth of the 
business thrust me out of our camp disguised, with 
all the treasure that I had won in war, bidding me 
hide myself awhile till the matter was forgotten. 
O Queen, I did not desire to go; nay, I desired to 
stay and to pay the price of my sin. But they would 
not have it so. I think indeed that there were 
others behind, great ones of Egypt, moving in this 
matter; at least I was thrust forth, all being made 
easy for me, and all eyes growing blind.” 

Again he paused, and I, Ayesha, clothed as the 
goddess, asked, 

“And what did you then, you who could slay your 
brother for the sake of woman?” 

“Then, Divine One, I fled up Nile where, be¬ 
cause of the trouble that was in the land, Pharaoh’s 
arm could not reach me, nor the arm of the com¬ 
mander of the Greeks. Tarrying not and without 
speech with that high maiden who was the cause of 
my sin, I fled up Nile.” 

“Why did you fly up Nile and not back to your 
own people, O most sinful man?” 

“Because my heart is broken, Queen, and I 
desired to seek the mercy of Isis whose law I had 
learned already and to become her priest. I knew 
that those who bow themselves to her may look no 


THE KISS OF FATE 


49 


more on woman, but thenceforth must live virgin to 
the death, and it was my will to look no more on 
woman, since woman had stained my hands with a 
brother’s blood, and therefore I hated her.” 

Now I, Ayesha, asked, 

“What gods did you worship before your heart 
was turned to Isis, Queen of Heaven?” 

“I worshipped the gods of Greece and first among 
them Aphrodite, Lady of Love.” 

“Who has paid you well for your service, making 
of you a murderer of one of your own blood who, 
before she blinded your eyes, was more to you than 
any on the earth. Do you then renounce this 
wanton Aphrodite?” 

“Aye, Queen, I renounce her for ever. Never 
more will I offer at her altars or look on woman in 
the way of love. If I may have pardon for my 
sins, here and now I vow myself to Isis as her faith¬ 
ful priest and servant. Here and now I blot the 
name of Aphrodite from my heart; yea, I reject 
her gifts and tread down all her memories beneath 
my aspiring feet that at last shall bear my soul to 
peace.” 

Thus the man spoke in a quivering and earnest 
voice, and was silent. Yes, deep silence reigned in 
that holy place, whilst I, Ayesha, although it is true 
that as a woman I misdoubted me of such rash oaths, 
as the minister of the goddess, prepared myself 
to grant pardon to this seeker in the hallowed, 
immemorial words, and to open to his troubled 
heart the doors of purity and rest eternal. 

Then suddenly in that silence clearly I heard the 
sound of silvern laughter, soft, sweet laughter that 
seemed to come from the skies above and though it 
was so low to fill the shrine and all the hall beyond. 
I looked about me but could see naught. It would 


50 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


seem, too, that the Greek heard also, for he turned 
his head and looked behind him, then once more let 
it fall upon his hands. 

Whence came that sound? Could it be that she 

of Paphos-? Nay, it was impossible, and not 

thus would I be turned from my office, I who was 
clothed with the robe and for that hour wielded the 
might of Isis. 

“Hearken, O man, in the world named Kallikra- 
tes,” I said. “On behalf of Isis, the All-Mother, 
goddess of virtue and of wisdom, speaking with 
her voice, hearing with her ears, and filled with her 
soul, I wash you clean of all your sins and accept 
you as her priest, promising to you light burdens on 
the earth and beyond the earth great rewards for 
ever. First swear the oath that may not be broken, 
and then draw near that I may kiss you on the brow, 
accepting you as the slave and lover of Isis, from 
this day until the moon, her heavenly throne, shall 
crumble into nothingness.” 

Having spoken thus, letting the words fall one 
by one, slowly as the tears of the penitent fell upon 
the ground, I uttered the oath, the form of which 
even now I must not write. 

It was a dreadful oath covering all things, and 
binding him who took it to Isis alone, an oath that if 
it were forgot wrought upon the traitor the age¬ 
long doom of death in this world and woe in the 
worlds to come, till by slow steps, with pierced heart 
and bleeding feet, the holy height from which he 
had fallen should be climbed again. 

At length it was finished and he said faintly, 

“I swear! With fear and trembling still I swear!” 

Then I beckoned to him with the sistrum of which 
the little shaken bells made a faint compelling 
music that already he had learned to follow, and 



THE KISS OF FATE 


5i 


he came and kneeled before me. There I laid the 
Cross of Life upon his head and gave him blessing, 
laid it upon his lips and gave him wisdom, laid it 
upon his heart and gave him existence for thousands 
upon thousands of years. All these things I did in 
the name and with the strength of Isis the Mother. 

Came the last rite, the greeting of the Mother 
to her child new-born in spirit, the rite of the Kiss 
of welcome. At that moment supreme a light fell 
on me from above: perchance it came from 
Heaven, perchance it was an art of the watching 
priests; I do not know. At least it fell upon me 
illumining my glittering robes and jewelled head¬ 
dress with a soft splendour in the darkness of that 
shrine. At that moment, too, at a touch my veil 
fell down, so that thi moonlight struck full upon my 
face making it mystical and lovely in the frame of 
my flowing hair. 

The priest new-ordained lifted his bent head that 
I might consecrate his brow with the Kiss of wel¬ 
come, and his hood fell back. The moonlight 
shone on his face also, his beautiful face like to that 
of a sculptured Grecian god, shapely, fine-featured, 
large-eyed, and crowned with little golden curls— 
for as yet he was unshorn; yes, a face more beauti¬ 
ful than that which I had seen on any man, set above 
a warrior’s tall and sinewy form. 

By Isis! I knew this face; it was that which had 
haunted me from childhood, that which often I had 
seen in a dream of halls beyond the earth, that of 
a man who in this dream had been sworn to me to 
complete my womanhood. Oh! I could not doubt, 
it was the same, the very same, and looking on it, 
the curse of Aphrodite fell upon me and for the 
first time I knew the madness of our mortal flesh. 
Yea, my being was rent and shattered like a cedar 


52 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


beneath the lightning stroke; I was smitten through 
and through. I, the priestess of Isis, proud and 
pure, was as lost as any village maid within her 
lover’s arms. 

The man, too! He saw me and his aspect 
changed; the holy fervour went out of his eyes and 
into them entered something more human, some¬ 
thing more fateful. It was as though he, too, re¬ 
membered—I know not what. 

With a mighty effort of the will, aware that the 
eyes of the goddess and perchance of her priests 
also were upon me, I conquered myself and with 
beating heart and heaving breast bent down to 
touch his brow with the Kiss of ceremony. Yet, I 
know not how—I know not if the fault were his or 
mine or perchance of both of us—it was his lips I 
touched, not his brow, just touched them and no 
more. 

It was nothing, or at any rate but a little thing, 
in one instant come and gone, and yet to me it was 
all. For in that touch I broke my holy vows, and 
he, new-sworn to the worship of the goddess, broke 
his, yes, in the very act of sacrifice. What drove 
us to it? I do not know, but once again I 
thought I heard that low, triumphant laughter, and 
it came into my mind that we were the sport of an 
indomitable power greater than ourselves and all 
the oaths that mortals swear to gods or men. 

I waved my sceptre. The new-made priest arose, 
bowed and withdrew, I wondering of whom he was 
the priest—of Isis or of Aphrodite. The singing of 
a distant choir broke out upon the silence, the heiro- 
phants came and led him away to be of their com¬ 
pany till his death: the ceremony was ended. My 
attendants, arrayed as the goddesses Hathor and 
Nut, conducted me from the shrine. I was unrobed 


THE KISS OF FATE 


53 


of my sacred panoplies and once more from a god¬ 
dess became a woman, and as a woman I sought my 
couch and wept and wept. 

For had I not at the first temptation in my heart 
broken the law and betrayed the trust of her who, 
as then I believed, is and was and shall be; her 
whose veil no mortal man had lifted, the Mother of 
the sun and all its stars? 


CHAPTER V 

The Summons 

None knew my fault. Yet I knew, and what is 
known to one soul is known to all souls, since one 
is all and all are one. Moreover, it was known to 
That which begets souls, That from which they 
come and to which they return again, again to come, 
as Plato, the great philosopher, who died before my 
day, has taught us in his writings. Also it was 
known to that accursed priest who was the cause 
and partner of my crime. I was overcome; I was 
eaten up with shame, I who thought myself purer 
than the mountain snows, as indeed I was and, in 
the flesh, to this hour have remained. 

Soon I could no longer bear my torment. To 
Noot I went, Noot the high-priest, my counsellor 
and master, and in a secret place kneeling on my 
knees, there I told him all. 

He hearkened with a little smile upon his with¬ 
ered face, then answered, 

“Daughter, in your honesty you do but reveal 
that which I knew—how I knew it ^matters not. 
And now take comfort, since the blame is not alto¬ 
gether yours, or even that of this new-made priest, 
whose foot was caught in the same snare. You 
worship Isis, as I do, but what is Isis whom we 
portray on earth as a woman glorious above all 
women? Is she not Nature’s self, the universal 
Mother, the Supreme in whom all gods and god- 

54 



THE SUMMONS 


55 


desses have a part? She wars on Aphrodite, it is 
true, yet does not that mean that in verity she wars 
upon herself? And are we not as Isis is, not one 
but many poured into a single mould, for do we not 
all war upon ourselves? Believe me, Daughter, 
the human heart is a great battleground where the 
higher and the lower parts of us fight with spiritual 
spears and arrows, till one side or the other wins 
victory and hoists the banner of good or evil, of 
Isis or of Set. Only out of struggle comes perfect¬ 
ness; that which has never struggled is a dead 
creature from whom little may be hoped. The ore 
must be melted in the fire and lo! the most of it is 
dross, refuse to be thrown away. Had it never 
known the fire, there could be no pure gold to adorn 
the brows of Heaven, nor even copper and iron to 
shape the swords of men. Rejoice, then, that you 
have felt the hurt of fire.” 

“Master,” I answered, “Lord of Wisdom to 
whom alone Ayesha bows the knee, your words are 
true and comfortable, yet bethink you, and if it is 
permitted, interpret me this riddle. I dreamed a 
dream of the time before my earthly days—you 
know it well for I have told it to you. I dreamed 
of a place in Heaven and of two goddesses matched 
against each other and of a command that was laid 
upon me to bring woe upon those who had deserted 
the one and turned to the other. Now if they were 
parts of a single whole, why should this command 
be laid upon me?” 

“Daughter, in your dream you were ordained to 
be a Sword of Vengeance, not because the Egyptians 
turned from one part of the holy Unity to another 
part of that Unity, but because they have become 
corrupt and faithless, worshipping no gods save 
themselves and following after that which is low, 


56 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

not that which is high. Such is my answer, yet of 
the truth or the falsehood of that dream I say 
nothing. Perchance it was but a dream.” 

“Perchance, Master. Yet in that dream, true 
or false, I saw a face, and lo! a few nights gone I, 
draped as Isis in the shrine, I saw that face again 
and knew it; knew also that with it my fate is inter¬ 
twined. What of this?” 

“Daughter, who are we that we should read the 
mysteries of Fate, we who know not whence we 
come nor whither we go, nor what we have been, 
nor why we are? It may be that you have some 
mission toward the spirit that is clothed in the flesh 
of yonder man. It may be that you are destined to 
uplift that spirit, and in so doing yourself to be 
trodden down. If so, I say that in the end you shall 
rise again and bear him upward with you.” 

He paused, and I knelt silent, pondering the 
prophecy, for such I knew it well to be. Then again 
he spoke, 

“You heard a laughter in the shrine, yet there 
was no laughter save that of the evil in your own 
heart, mocking and triumphant. Such laughter 
mayhap you will often hear, but while you can hear 
it and repent, be not dismayed. When the ears of 
the soul grow deaf then utter loss is near; while 
they are open, hope remains. Those who still 
strive can never wholly fall. Fate rules us every 
one, yet within the circle of that Fate power is given 
to us to work out our redemption. I have finished. 
Ask me no more.” 

“What punishment, Master?” I asked. 

“Daughter, this. For a while look no more 
upon that man. I say for a while, since with you 
I hold that his destiny and yours are intertwined. I 
have a command for you: that presently you accom- 


THE SUMMONS 


57 


pany me hence to lands beyond the seas. Now, go 
rest, and in rest find forgetfulness.” 

So I went, wondering yet comforted, though I 
knew well that Noot the Holy had not told me all, 
no, nor yet the half of what he knew. For often 
those to whom the gods give vision are forbid to 
speak it, lest, as in the old Hebrew parable, men 
should eat of the tree of knowledge and grow like 
to them. Or perchance they cannot speak it, since 
it comes to them in a tongue which may not be 
rendered in the words that the passer-by would un¬ 
derstand. So indeed it is with me to-day. 

Thus it came about that soon I and my master, 
Noot, left Philae and as before travelled the Nile 
disguised. Never since then have my eyes looked 
upon that island and its holy fane which Holly, who 
has visited it, tells me is now a ruin with stark, 
Hathor-headed columns standing here and there 
amongst the tumbled stones. He says, moreover, 
that his people who rule the land to-day purpose to 
sink it beneath the Nile that the lands below may be 
enriched and multiplied. Herein I see an allegory; 
the temples of Isis are drowned and the learning 
they held is lost in order that more food may grow 
to feed the common and the ignorant. Yet to what 
end, seeing that if there is more food, more men 
will come to eat it, all of them common and igno¬ 
rant, while Isis and her wisdom are swallowed in 
the slime. Thus has it ever been in Egypt, and doubt¬ 
less elsewhere, for such is Nature’s law. Food 
breeds multitudes and where carrion is, there are 
flies, while in the deserts both are lacking. Yet I 
think that the deserts and the few that wander on 
them beneath the sun and stars are nearer far to 
God. 


58 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Once more disguised as merchants, I and Noot, 
my master, took ship and visited far lands to see 
their state and gather wisdom. We visited Rome, 
then breaking her shackles and rising to her great¬ 
ness. They were a great people, those Romans 
that Noot out of his foresight told me would one 
day rule the world. Or perhaps it was I who told 
Noot, judging them by their qualities; I am not sure. 
At least I loved them not, because of their rude 
natures, their lack of arts and their love of power 
and gain. Therefore when I had studied their lan¬ 
guage and their politics I passed on. 

We came to Greece and tarried there awhile, 
studying philosophies and other things. The Greeks 
I did love, because they were beautiful and called 
forth beauty from all they touched. Also they 
were brave who defied the Persian might and had 
they but stood together, might have queened it 
on the earth. But they would not, for ever State 
tore out the throat of State, so that in the end all 
were undone and overwhelmed by a multitude of 
commoner folk who held Greece before them, for 
such was their destiny. Moreover, they worship¬ 
ped gods made like themselves, wfith all the faults 
of men grown greater and more vile, and told fables 
concerning them fit to please children, which I 
thought strange in a people that could produce such 
philosophers and poets. Yet those gods had come 
down to them from their fathers, and it is hard to 
shake off the yoke of gods until some greater god 
appears and breaks it with the hammer of war. 

Here in Greece it was that I posed to its most 
famous sculptor for a statue of Aphrodite, or rather 
it was as a mould of perfect Womanhood that I 
posed, desiring that this sculptor, who pleased me, 
should have one flawless model to copy in his future 


THE SUMMONS 


59 


work, for which he blessed me, naming that statue 
“Beauty’s Self.” Yet when I visited him a while 
afterward I found that he had changed this name 
to Aphrodite. 

I was angered who did not desire that my loveli¬ 
ness should be accredited to mine enemy and that 
of Isis whom I served, and asked him why this had 
been done. 

He answered, humbly enough, because of a dream 
in which the Paphian had appeared to him and 
threatened him with blindness unless he gave her 
own name to so divine a face and form. Moreover, 
being in the thrall of superstition he prayed me, 
even with tears, that thus it might remain, since 
otherwise he must break that statue and as he 
thought, be blinded as well. So out of pity I let 
him have his way and even gave him my hand to 
kiss in token of forgiveness. 

Thus it comes about that Aphrodite unashamed 
throughout the ages has taken t'he tribute of a 
million eyes, clothed in a borrowed loveliness. So 
be it, since what she has stolen is but a fraction of 
the truth. No sculptor, however great, can mould 
the perfect out of frozen stone. 

From Greece, still disguised as a merchant and 
his daughter, we wandered to Jerusalem, feigning 
to trade in pearls and gems, since there I would 
study the religion of the Jews whereof I had heard 
so much. The “City of Peace” it was called among 
the Egyptians of old times, or so they interpreted 
its name, but never found I one in which there was 
less of peace. Fierce-faced were those Jews and 
quarrelsome; revengeful too and ever waging war, 
public and private, upon one another. A peculiar 
people, as they name themselves, full of hate, par¬ 
ticularly of the stranger within their gates. To 


6o 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


trade with them was scarcely possible, because he 
who sold them wares was always left the loser, 
though for this I who sought their philosophy, not 
their gold, cared nothing. 

So I turned myself to the study of their faith, 
and found that God, as they interpreted Him, was 
well-nigh as fierce as were his worshippers. Yet 
this I will say, that He was one God, not many, and 
a true God also, since otherwise how could his 
prophets have written so gloriously concerning Him? 
Moreover, it was their belief that He would come 
to earth and lead them to the conquest of the world. 
This, Holly tells me, has chanced though not in the 
shape they hoped, since the King who came would 
have led them but to the conquest of the evil that 
is in the hearts of men and to the knowledge of a 
life to be, in which they had small faith. Therefore 
they persecuted and slew Him as a malefactor after 
their cruel fashion, and what is now accepted by 
millions, so says Holly, they still reject. 

I preached to them, for my heart burned in me 
at the sight of their sacrifices. Yes, I preached to 
them against the shedding of blood, telling them of 
a higher philosophy of gentleness and mercy. For 
a while they listened, then took up stones and stoned 
me, so that had I and Noot not been protected by 
Heaven, we should have been slain. After this 
affront I turned my back upon Jerusalem and its 
hook-nosed, fierce-eyed people, and went to Cyprus 
where I debated with the lewd priests of Aphrodite 
at Paphos. Thence I got me back to Egypt whence 
I had been absent many years. 

At Naukratis priests of Isis who knew of our 
coming, how I cannot tell, perchance Noot had told 
them by messenger, or in a dream as he could do, 
met us and conducted us up the Nile to the temple 


THE SUMMONS 


61 


of Isis at Memphis. Here we were received in 
state in the great hall of the temple and lo! at the 
head of those who welcomed us was the Greek Kal- 
likrates, now by his holiness and zeal risen high in 
the service of the goddess. 

When I saw him, beauteous as of old, my heart 
stood still and the blood rushed to my brow. 

Yet I gave no sign, treating him as a stranger on 
whom my eyes had never fallen until that hour. He 
for his part stared at me with a puzzled air, then 
shook his head as one does who sees a face that he 
believes he has met in dream and yet is doubtful. 
For be it remembered, this man had looked on me 
but once, when robed as Isis I received him into 
the company of her priests at Philae, and then but 
for a moment in the light of the moon. Perchance 
he still thought that it was the goddess herself 
whom he saw thus and not a mortal. At the least 
he did not know that I, the beauteous prophetess 
who came to Memphis after wandering through the 
world, was the same as she who had sat upon the 
throne of Isis at Philae and whom by chance he had 
kissed upon the lips. Mayhap even he did not 
remember the kiss, or if he remembered, set it 
down as part of the ceremonial. Thus, if I knew 
him but too well, to him I was a stranger. 

I bethought me of flight, knowing in my heart that 
to me this man was as the fabled sword that hung 
above the head of Damocles, though what harm I 
had to fear from him, I did not know. 

Again I sought the counsel of Noot who smiled 
and answered, 

“Have I not told you, Daughter, that perils must 
be faced since those from which we flee will be 
swift to overtake us? If Destiny has brought you 
and this man together, be certain that it is for its 


62 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

own purposes. Surely you have learned your lesson 
and steeled your soul against all fleshly vanities.” 

“Yes, my Father,” I answered proudly, “I have 
learned my lesson and steeled my soul. Moreover, 
your thought is my thought, nor will I turn my back 
on any man. Here I bide, defying woman’s weak¬ 
ness and all the wiles of evil gods.” 

“Well spoken,” answered Noot, and blessed me 
in the ancient words. Yet as he did so I noted that 
he sighed and shook his head. 

For many a moon, I know not how many who, 
having all time at my command, seem to have lost 
its petty count, I remained there in the temple at 
Memphis of which soon I became the prophetess 
and the head of the priestesses. Ere long the fame 
of my divinations spread far and wide, so that from 
all the land those who sought wisdom or knowledge 
of the future would come to consult me, bringing 
great gifts to the goddess, though not one gem or 
piece of gold did Noot or I keep for ourselves, who 
indeed had no need of such common dross. 

So I sat in a carven chair in the sanctuary, my 
diviner’s bowl at my side, and uttered dark sayings 
like to those of the famous oracles of the Greeks 
at Delphi, many of which fulfilled themselves. For 
in truth, I think that there was a spirit in me— 
whether it came from the Heavens or elsewhere I 
do not know—which enabled me to read much that 
was passing upon the earth and even sometimes that 
which had not yet happened upon the earth. So 
the renown of the Lady Isis spread till I became a 
power in the land. Moreover, thus I learned many 
things, for those who consult an oracle, like those 
who seek the help of a physician, lay bare their 
souls, keeping no secret back. 


THE SUMMONS 


63 

Now at this time Egypt and all the countries 
round seethed with war like a pot boiling on the 
flames. For years Egypt had beaten off the attacks 
of the Persians, but now the Pharaoh Nectanebes, 
the second of that name who then sat upon the 
throne, the last native king who reigned upon the 
Nile, was threatened by Artaxerxes, that one of this 
accursed race who was named Ochus. This Per¬ 
sian Ochus had gathered a mighty force to subdue 
Egypt, hundreds of thousands of men, tens of thou¬ 
sands of horsemen, hundreds of triremes and of 
transport ships. 

The last act of the tragedy had begun of which 
the end was to be the crushing of Egypt who never 
more should know a Pharaoh of her own blood and 
choosing. Of all these things I learned through 
those who came to consult the oracle of Isis, and 
much did I talk of them with Noot. 

Now of myself during these long years of quiet 
and preparation for great events, I will say that 
ever my spirit grew in purity and strength. I put 
the things of earth behind me, I grew nearer to the 
Divine, and in the night time I communed with my 
soul which seemed to have become a part of that 
which is above the world. The Greek, Kallikrates, 
I saw continually, but no word passed between us 
save such as had to do with matters of our faith 
and of the worship of Isis in whose service he now 
stood high. Never did we interchange a touch or 
a look of love. He was apart from me and I from 
him. And yet always in my heart I feared this 
man, this beautiful man, the warrior who had be¬ 
come a priest, for some prescience told me that he 
would bring disaster on my head, or I should bring 
it upon his, I knew not which. 

So there we sat in the sanctuary, Noot the wise 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


64 

and aged, who yet never seemed to change^ Kallikra- 
tes the priest, and I, and alone or together gave 
counsel to kings and captains, or uttered oracles. 
Clear seemed our sky and free from trouble, yet 
on the far horizon in my spirit I discerned the tem¬ 
pest clouds arising, the terrible clouds in which the 
lightnings played like the swords of Destiny that 
in a day to come were doomed to overwhelm and 
pierce us through. 

Nectanebes the second, the Pharaoh, came to his 
palace at Memphis to gather troops from Upper 
Egypt and made great offerings to the gods, seek¬ 
ing their favour in the coming war. Now I saw 
him for the first time, a gray-haired, fat, heavy- 
jowled man, bald-headed, large-nosed, with great 
eyes like to those of an ox. Such was Nectanebes, 
the magician, the consorter with familiar spirits, 
named the Destroyer, a title which the gods who 
hated him must have given him in irony since him¬ 
self he was doomed to be destroyed. But one good 
thing can I say of this Nectanebes, that he was a 
lover of the arts and raised glorious buildings to 
the gods. Learning that I, the high-priestess, had 
dwelt at Philas, he came to consult me as to the 
beautiful temple with the Hathor-headed columns 
which he built there and through my counsel it was 
made perfect, for I drew its plans, or at least those 
of its adornments. Holly tells me that even as a 
ruin, although so small, there is no lovelier building 
in all Egypt. 

Now this Pharaoh thought me a Greek and did 
not know that I was Arab and the daughter of him 
of Ozal in Yamen, whom his father, the first Nec¬ 
tanebes, had brought to his death because once 
long ago I had been refused as a wife to himself 
or to this son of his who now had succeeded him. 


THE SUMMONS 


65 

Of these things doubtless he remembered little or 
nothing, since that was one of the smallest of 
Egypt’s wars. But I, I remembered and swore that 
in payment for my father’s blood I would bring his 
accursed House to ruin. Always also I received 
him veiled since I did not desire that he should look 
upon my beauty and inquire concerning my history; 
therefore, as a prophetess had a right to do, I re¬ 
ceived the Pharaoh veiled. 

Often he came to visit me because he had learned 
that I was a mistress of Magic and he who practised 
magic much hoped that I would teach him secrets 
he did not know, and show him how to lay spells 
upon his enemies. This indeed I did, but the secrets 
that I taught him were evil and the spells were 
spears that when he threw them would fall back 
upon his head. 

So the scene was set, and at length came the sum¬ 
mons to begin the play with the watching world for 
audience. 

A writing sealed with Pharaoh’s seal was brought 
to the temple of Isis, commanding Noot the high- 
priest, and me, Ayesha, who now was named 
Oracle-of-Isis, and the Greek Kallikrates, Chief of 
the Ceremonies, whose office it was to assist me in 
my divinations, to attend the court of Pharaoh and 
there declare to him the future of the war as it 
should be revealed to us by the great goddess whom 
we served. At first we refused to go, whereon 
there came another message which said that if we 
continued to refuse, we should be brought. The 
Pharaoh wished to offer no affront to Isis, the 
messenger declared, but the matter was urgent, as 
great things hung upon the revelations which we 
alone could make, and some of the kings and gen¬ 
erals who were gathered in the temple as allies of 


66 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Nectanebes, being the worshippers of other gods, 
could not set foot in the holy shrine of Isis. 

Then, there being no help for it, we answered that 
we would come that very night at the rising of the 
moon. 

Hastily consulting together we planned the words 
of an oracle, double-edged words that yet prophe¬ 
sied good to Nectanebes and encouraged him to 
war; for thus we believed we should most quickly 
bring about his downfall. 

Yet as those words were never spoken I will not 
write them down. 


CHAPTER VI 
The Divination 

Accompanied by the priests and priestesses of Isis 
clad in their robes and chanting the holy songs, I 
was borne veiled to the palace of the Pharaoh in a 
litter, with its curtains drawn. On my right hand 
walked Noot the high-priest, white-bearded, vener¬ 
able; and on my left the Greek Kallikrates, Master 
of the Rites. 

Thus we came to the palace of which the outer 
courts were filled with Grecian soldiers of the guard, 
some of whom in past years Kallikrates had once 
commanded, although as a shaven priest of Isis, 
disguised in his white robes, they knew him no 
more. These men stared at us, ready to mock and 
yet afraid, as did Phoenicians, Sidonians, men of 
Cyprus, and others who were gathered in the courts 
as though awaiting some great event. 

In an outer hall a captain of the guard bade our 
escort of priests and priestesses to await our return, 
but we three, that is I, Ayesha, Noot, and Kal¬ 
likrates, were summoned to the small banqueting 
chamber where Nectanebes with a few of the most 
highly placed of his guests sat at their feast. Among 
these were the King of Sidon, two more kings from 
Cyprus, three Grecian generals, some great nobles 
of Egypt, and others. Also certain royal ladies 
were present, and among them one who instantly 
drew my eyes to her. She was younger than I— 

67 


68 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


perchance there may have been ten years between us, 
tall, slender, and lovely in her dark fashion, with a 
strong, quiet face and large brooding eyes, soft as 
a deer’s and rather blue than black in colour. 

Suddenly as we entered I, who note all, saw these 
eyes grow frightened like to those of one who sees 
some spirit returned from the halls of Death; saw 
also the rich-hued face turn pale, then grow red 
again as the blood flowed back; saw the breast heave 
beneath the jewelled robes, so sharply that a flower 
fell from them, and the lips of coral part as though 
to utter some remembered name. 

Wondering what had thus disturbed this beau¬ 
teous royalty since I, being veiled, it could not have 
been the vision of myself, I glanced round and per¬ 
ceived that Kallikrates, who was on my left, but a 
little behind me, had become pale as a dead man 
and stood like one frozen into stone. 

“Who is that royal woman?” I whispered to 
Noot through my veil, for royal I knew her to be 
by the Uraeus circlet she wore upon her raven hair. 

“Pharaoh’s daughter, Amenartas,” he whispered 
back, “whom the Greeks call The Maiden because 
she will take no man in marriage.” 

Then I remembered a certain confession that 
once I had heard sitting on the throne of the god¬ 
dess Isis at Philae, of how the penitent had loved 
a girl of the royal House of Egypt, and for her sake 
killed his own dear brother; remembered also that 
this penitent was none other than the priest Kal¬ 
likrates. Now I understood all, and though Kal¬ 
likrates was naught to me save a fellow servant of 
the goddess, I hated that Amenartas and became 
aware that between her and me there was war un¬ 
ending, though how and why I knew not. 

Next I looked at a man clad in kingly robes who 


THE DIVINATION 


69 

sat on Pharaoh’s right. He was a large man of 
about five and forty years of age with dark, hand¬ 
some face and shifting eyes; one with a jovial aspect 
which yet I felt to be but a mask covering a heart 
full of evil schemes. From his purple robe sewn 
with pearls and the style of his attire and head¬ 
dress I guessed that this must be Tenes the Phoe¬ 
nician, King of the city of Sidon that was reported 
the wealthiest in the world, which city, having re¬ 
volted, had joined Egypt in its war against the 
Persians. Instantly I weighed that man in the bal¬ 
ance of my mind and wrote him down as an ambi¬ 
tious rogue who was also a coward and, as I judged 
from the many charms he wore, full of superstition. 

The others I had no time to study for at once 
the Pharaoh began to speak. 

“Greeting, Prophetess,” he said, rising from 
his chair and bowing to us, or rather to me, “Greet¬ 
ing, High-priest of Isis, Queen of Heaven, Mistress 
of the World; greeting also, Priest, Master of the 
Rites of Isis. Pharaoh thanks you all for thus 
promptly answering to his summons, since this night 
Egypt needs your wisdom more perchance than ever 
before in all the ages of its history.” 

“Be pleased, O Pharaoh, to set out what you 
desire of us, the servants of the eternal goddess,” 
said Noot. 

“This, High-priest: that you should declare the 
future to us. Hearken! As you know, the great 
war has begun. The mighty Tenes here, King of 
Sidon, my ally, by the help of the Greeks I sent 
him, has defeated the Persians and against these 
Cyprus also is in revolt. But now Artaxerxes Ochus 
has seized the throne of Persia, having murdered 
all who stood between it and him, with the help of 
Bagoas the eunuch, his counsellor and general. He 


70 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


has raised a countless host and is pouring down 
upon Sidon and upon Egypt. Therefore we would 
learn how the war shall go and to what gods we 
must sacrifice to secure the victory.” 

“O Pharaoh,” answered Noot, “in bygone years 
when your father sat upon the throne and I was 
the Kherheb, yes, the first magician of Egypt, he 
asked me such questions as these, and having prayed 
to my goddess, I answered him in the words that 
she commanded. None heard those words save 
your father himself, for he and I were alone to¬ 
gether. Yet there was that in them which made 
him wroth so that he sought to kill me, and to save 
my life I fled out of Egypt, going whither the god¬ 
dess led me. Afterward I was called back to Egypt 
where once more I am high-priest of Isis though the 
office of Kherheb is filled by another. How know 
I, Pharaoh, if I obey you as I obeyed your father, 
and again the goddess should utter prophecies which 
are not pleasing to the ears of kings, that once more 
my life may not be sought in payment?” 

“I swear, High-priest,” answered Nectanebes 
eagerly, “that whatever may be revealed by the 
goddess, you shall take no harm. I swear it by 
the name and throne of the holy Isis, to whom I 
will make great gifts, and all this company are wit¬ 
nesses of the oath. If it be broken, may the curse 
of Isis and of all the gods of Egypt fall upon the 
head of me and mine. Draw nigh now that I may 
touch you with my sceptre, thereby forgiving all that 
you have said or shall say against me or my House, 
and restoring to you your office of Kherheb of 
Egypt, whereof my father, who to-day is gathered 
in Osiris, robbed you.” 

So Noot drew near and Pharaoh touched him 
with his sceptre, a cedar wand surmounted with a 


THE DIVINATION 


7 i 


little golden image of Horus, which he always car¬ 
ried because of his throne-name which signified 
“Horus-of-Gold” Moreover, he re-created him 
Kherheb and in token of it set upon his shoulders the 
gold chain from his own neck, and swore to him his 
place and power for life and the gift of an alabaster 
coffin wherein to lie after life was done. This sar¬ 
cophagus, however, Noot refused, saying darkly 
that it was fated that he should sleep his last sleep 
far away from Egypt. Then he, Noot, drew back 
and as he went I saw Pharaoh’s daughter rise and 
whisper awhile in her father’s ear. He listened 
and nodded. Then he said, 

“Come hither, priest who is named ‘Lover-of- 
Isis’ and Master of her rites, the royal Lady of 
Egypt says to me that in bygone days when she was 
scarce a woman, she thinks that before you were a 
priest, you held some command amongst the Greeks 
of my guard, as from your stature and bearing I 
can well believe. She says also that if her memory 
serves her, you slew some man in a quarrel and for 
this reason fled away and sought refuge with Isis. 
If such things happened I have forgotten them, nor 
do I ask concerning them. Let them lie. Yet, lest 
you should be afraid that old tales may be told 
against you or vengeance wrought upon you, come 
hither also and receive pardon for the past, and pro¬ 
tection and advancement for the future and with 
these a gift from Pharaoh.” 

Now I marvelled at this lady’s foresight and 
cunning which showed her how to take advan¬ 
tage of Pharaoh’s mood and safeguard one who 
once had loved her, all of which told me that she 
must be a wise woman as well as beauteous. Also 
it told me that the worship of this man had been 
pleasing to her. Then Kallikrates drew near and 


72 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


was touched with the sceptre. Moreover, Pharaoh 
spoke to him in like words that he had spoken to 
Noot, pardoning him all and promising him much. 
Moreover, in token of his favour he gave him a gold 
cup of Grecian workmanship having two handles, 
that was chased about with the story of the loves of 
Aphrodite and Adonis, and bordered with a wreath 
of those anemones which were fabled to have sprung 
from his blood. This glorious, flower-like cup from 
which the guests, when we entered, were pledging 
themselves in wine of Cyprus, Pharaoh lifted from 
the board and sent to Kallikrates, a great gift which 
made it clear to me how deeply he desired to pro¬ 
pitiate the goddess in the persons of her servants. 

Lastly the private scribe was commanded to write 
down these decrees that he had spoken, which he 
did forthwith, sealing them with Pharaoh’s seal and 
giving one copy to Noot whilst keeping the other to 
be filed among the records. 

Thus Noot and Kallikrates were protected from 
all things, but to me, the Prophetess, nothing was 
said, as I thought for two reasons, first because I 
was known to Pharaoh, who as I have told, had 
often consulted me upon matters of magic, and sec¬ 
ondly because as the “voice of the goddess” I was 
holy and above reward or punishment at the hands 
of man. Thus I thought, with how much truth 
shall be seen. 

The gifts were received, the papyrus had been 
hidden away in the robe of Noot, and there was si¬ 
lence in the chamber. To me, Ayesha, this heavy 
silence was full of omen. My soul, made keen and 
fine with ceaseless contemplation of things that are 
above the earth, in that silence seemed to hear the 
breath of the watching gods of Egypt. To me it 
was as though they had gathered there to listen to 


THE DIVINATION 


73 


the fate of this their ancient home on earth. Yes, 
I felt them about me; or at the least I felt a spirit 
stirring. 

The company at the table drank no more wine 
and ceased from speech. They sat still staring in 
front of them and notwithstanding the glitter of the 
ornaments that proclaimed their royalty or rule, to 
me they were as dead men in a tomb. Only the 
Princess of Egypt, Amenartas, seemed to be alive 
and outside the circle of this doom, for I noted that 
her splendid eyes sought the face, the perfect, car- 
ven face of the priest Kallikrates and that though 
he stood with folded arms and gaze fixed upon the 
ground, he knew it, for now and again covertly he 
glanced back at her. 

At length one of those guests could bear no more, 
and spoke. He was a close-lipped, war-worn Gre¬ 
cian general who afterward I learned was named 
Kleinios of Cos, the commander of Pharaoh’s mer¬ 
cenary forces. 

“By Zeus!” he cried, “are we men or are we 
stones, or are we shades in Hades? Let these di¬ 
viners divine and have done, for I would get me to 
my wine again.” 

“Aye,” broke in Tenes, King of Sidon. “Bid 
them divine, Pharaoh, since we have much to agree 
upon ere I sail at dawn.” 

Then all the company cried, “Divine! Divine! n 
save Amenartas only, who searched the face of Kal¬ 
likrates with her eyes, as though she would learn 
what lay behind its cold and priestly mask. 

“So be it,” said Noot, “but first I pray Pharaoh 
to bid all mean men depart.” 

Pharaoh waved his sceptre and the butlers and 
attendants bowed and went. Then Noot motioned 
to Kallikrates, who thereon shook the sistrum that 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


74 

he bore and, in his rich, low voice, uttered a chant 
to the goddess, that which was used to summon her 
presence. 

He ended his chant and Noot began to pray. 

“Hear me, thy prophet, O thou who wast and art 
and shalt be, thou in whose bosom is locked all the 
wisdom of heaven and earth,” he prayed. “These 
kings and great ones desire knowledge, declare it 
unto them according to thy will. They desire truth 
—let them learn the truth in such fashion as thou 
shalt decree.” 

Then he was silent. None spoke, yet it seemed 
that a command came to the three of us, for sud¬ 
denly Noot looked at the priest Kallikrates, a very 
strange look. Next the priest Kallikrates, rising 
from his knees, laid down the sistrum and taking the 
beautiful cup that Pharaoh had given him, went to 
the table and washed it with pure water from a sil¬ 
ver ewer, then filled it to the brim from the ewer 
and brought it to me, Ayesha. Now I knew that I 
was commanded to gaze into that cup and to say 
what things I saw. 

So I set it on the ground in front of me and kneel¬ 
ing, threw my veil over it and gazed into the water 
in the shallow golden cup. 

For a little while I saw nothing, till presently a 
face formed in the water, the face of the royal lady, 
Amenartas, which stared up at me out of the cup. 
Yes, it stared hard and seemed to threaten me, for 
in its eyes were hate and vengeance. Then an¬ 
other face came and covered it, the face of Kal¬ 
likrates the priest, and in its eyes were trouble and 
desire. 

Now I knew that the goddess Isis, or perchance 
another, she of the Greeks, spoke to me of matters 
that had to do with myself and not with the fate of 


THE DIVINATION 


75 

Egypt. In my heart I prayed to the Queen of 
Heaven to rid me of these visions, though to give 
me others I did not pray her, since it was my design 
to speak certain politic words which we had pre¬ 
pared. 

Yet other visions came unsought, for some spirit 
possessed me, a spirit of truth and destiny. They 
were many and all of them terrible. I saw battle¬ 
fields; I saw men fall in thousands, I saw cities in 
flames. I saw that false-eyed king, Tenes, dead. 
I saw the General, Kleinios of Cos, also dead, ly¬ 
ing on a heap of Grecian slain. I saw the Pharaoh 
Nectanebes flying up Nile upon a boat—I knew it 
was up Nile because the current rippled against the 
prow of his ship, I saw him seized by black savages 
and throttled with a rope till his tongue hung out 
and the great round eyes started from his head. I 
saw the temples of Egypt burning and a fierce-faced, 
drunken king hacking at the statues of the gods 
with a Persian sword and butchering the priests 
upon the altar. Then I saw no more but a voice 
called in my ears, 

“Death to Egypt! Death and desolation! Death 
to her king, death to her priests, death to her gods! 
Finished, finished, all is finished!’’ 

I cast the bowl from me. It overset but lo! 
there flowed from it not water but blood, or dark- 
hued wine, staining the white marble of the pave¬ 
ment. I stared at it! All stared at this god-sent 
horror! 

“A trick!” cried the Princess Amenartas. “She 
has coloured the water behind the shelter of her 
veil.” 

The others too, especially the Greeks, took up 
the cry, echoing, 

“A trick, a brazen trick!” 


76 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Only I noted that Pharaoh was silent, Pharaoh 
who knew that Ayesha, named Isis-come-to-Earth, 
did not deal in tricks; Pharaoh who himself prac¬ 
tised magic and had seen such omens sent by Set. 
Lo! Pharaoh looked afraid and spoke no word, only 
glared with his great eyes at the stain upon the 
marble. 

“What answer did the goddess give to your 
prayer, Prophetess,” asked Amenartas, sneering at 
me. 

“This answer, royal Lady of Egypt,” and I 
pointed to the marble, “the answer of blood.” 

“Blood! Whose blood? That of the Persians?” 

“Nay, Lady, that of many who sit at this feast 
and who ere long shall sit at the table of Osiris, and 
of thousands who cling to them. Yet be comforted, 
Lady, not your blood. I think that you have much 
mischief to work ere you sit also at the table of 
Osiris, or mayhap at that of Set,” I added, giving 
thrust for thrust. 

“Declare then their names, Seeress.” 

“Nay, I declare them not. Go, seek them for 
yourself, Lady, or let Pharaoh your father seek, for 
is he not a magician? though what god gives him 
vision I do not know. You name me cheat, or rather 
you name the goddess cheat. Therefore the god¬ 
dess is dumb and her prophetess is dumb.” 

“Aye, I name you cheat,” she cried, who in her 
heart was mad with fear, “and cheat you are. Now 
let this temple hag who hides her hideousness be¬ 
hind & silken screen unveil that we may see her as 
she is, and let her be searched and the vase of dye 
be taken from her bosom or her robes.” 

“Aye, let her be searched,” shouted the guests 
who were also afraid. 

“No need to search, high lords,” I said in a quav- 


THE DIVINATION 


77 

ering voice, as though I too were overcome with 
fear. “I will obey the Princess. I will unveil, 
yet I beseech you all, make not a mock of me when 
you see me as I am. Once I was perchance as fair 
as that royal Lady who commands, but years of 
abstinence and the sleepless search for wisdom mar 
the features and wither the frame. Moreover, 
time touches the locks, such of them as remain to 
me, since these too grow thin with age. Yet I 
will unveil and the vase of precious dye shall be the 
prize of him who first can snatch it from my bosom 
or my robe.” 

“Aye,” said one of them, it was the king Tenes, 
“and in payment for her trick we will make her 
drink what remains of it to give colour to her poor 
old carcase.” 

“Aye,” I answered, “and I will drink what re¬ 
mains of it for I think the stuff is harmless. Oh! 
be not angry because a poor conjurer plays her 
tricks.” 

Now Noot stared at me as though he were about 
to speak. Then his face changed like to that of a 
man who of a sudden receives a command that 
others cannot hear. He let fall his eyes, remaining 
silent, and I, watching, knew that it was the will of 
the goddess, or at least Noot’s will, that I should 
unveil. 

I glanced at the priest Kallikrates but he stood 
still, looking like Apollo’s self frozen into stone. 

During this play I had loosened the fastenings of 
my veil and hood and now of a sudden I cast them 
from me, revealing myself clad as Isis, that is in lit¬ 
tle save a transparent, clinging robe fastened about 
my middle. On my breast, hanging from a chain 
of pearls, were her holy symbols carved in gems and 
gold, and on my head her vulture cap beneath which 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


78 

my tresses hung almost to my feet, having the 
golden feathers of the cap adorned with sapphires 
and with rubies and the uraeus rising from it fash¬ 
ioned of glittering diamonds. 

Aye, I unveiled and stood before them, my arms 
folded upon the jewelled girdle beneath my breast. 

“Behold! Kings and Lords,” I said, “the temple 
hag stands before you in such poor shape as it has 
pleased the gods to fashion her. Now let him who 
can see it, come, take the vase that hides this un¬ 
veiled trickster’s dye.” 

For a moment there was silence while those brutal 
men devoured my white loveliness with their eyes, 
taking count of every beauty of my perfect face and 
form. Amenartas stared at me and her ruddy 
cheeks went pale; yes, even the coral faded from her 
rich lips. Then from between those lips there burst 
these words: 

“This is not a woman! This is the very god¬ 
dess. Beware of her, ye men, for she is terrible.” 

“Nay, nay,” I answered humbly, “I am but a poor 
mortal, not even royal like to yourself, Lady—but 
a poor mortal with some wits and wisdom, though 
perchance Isis for a while to your sight has touched 
me with her splendour. Come, take the vase ere I 
veil myself again.” 

Then those men went mad, all save Pharaoh, who 
sat brooding. 

“Goddess or woman,” they cried, “give her to us 
who henceforward can never look upon the beauty 
of another.” 

King Tenes rose, his coarse face afire and his 
shifting eyes fixed upon me greedily. 

“By Baal and by Ashtoreth!” he cried, “goddess 
or woman, never have I seen such an one as this 
prophetess of Isis. Hearken, Pharaoh, before the 


THE DIVINATION 


79 


feast we disputed together concerning a great sum 
of gold and in the end it was confessed by you that 
it was due to me in aid of my costs of war although, 
so you said, it could not be found in Egypt save by 
raiding the rich treasury of Isis. Perchance the 
goddess learned of this design of yours and by way 
of answer sent us an evil oracle. I know not, but this 
I do know, that she sent you also a means to pay the 
debt without cost to yourself or the robbing of her 
sacred treasury. Give me this fair priestess to com¬ 
fort me with her wisdom and otherwise”—here the 
company laughed coarsely—“and I will talk no 
more of the matter of that gold.” 

Pharaoh listened without raising his head, then 
looked on me with rolling eyes and answered: 

“Which would anger the goddess most, King 
Tenes—to lose her gold or her prophetess?” 

“The former as I think, Pharaoh, seeing that gold 
is scarce, and prophetesses—true or false—are 
many. Give her to me, I say.” 

“I cannot for my oath’s sake, King Tenes.” 

“You swore an oath to yonder high-priest and to 
yonder man, who looks like a Grecian god clad in a 
priest’s robe and is called Master-of-the-Rites, but 
to this lady you swore none.” 

“I swore the oath to Isis, King Tenes, and if I 
break it doubtless she will be avenged upon me. Go 
your way; the gold shall follow you to the last 
ounce, but the prophetess is not mine to give.” 

Nov/ Tenes stared at me again and I, who hated 
him with all my soul, gave him back his stare with 
interest, though this did but seem to inflame him the 
more. Then he turned on Pharaoh furiously and 
answered in a cold voice, 

“Hear me, Pharaoh. It is but a small matter, 
yet my mind is set upon this woman who knows the 



8o 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


heart of the gods and can pour their wisdom into 
my ears. Therefore make your choice: 

“In Sidon there are two factions of almost equal 
strength. One of them says ‘Make an alliance 
with Egypt and fight the Persian Ochus whom al¬ 
ready you have defeated once.’ The other says 
‘Make an alliance with Ochus and as reward in a 
day to come sit on Pharaoh’s throne!’ I have taken 
the first counsel as you know. Yet it is not too late 
to change that counsel for a second which perchance 
would prove the wiser, if there be aught in yonder 
divination,” and he pointed to the blood-stain upon 
the marble floor. Then he went on: 

“Moreover, I have my captains about me at this 
board and those that serve me wait without with all 
my fleet, and therefore should it be changed I need 
not fear to tell you so and to your face. So I say to 
you that if you will not please me in this small mat¬ 
ter, presently my ambassadors go forth to Susa with 
a message for the ear of Ochus to which it would 
rejoice you to listen, seeing that without the strong 
aid of Sidon and her fleets Egypt cannot conquer in 
this war.” 

Thus Tenes spoke and laid his hand upon the 
pommel of his short Phoenician sword. 

Now the face of Pharaoh, bearded thus in his 
own city and at his own board, grew red with rage 
and I saw that he was about to answer this outland 
king, defying him as many of the great monarchs 
who filled his throne before him would have done. 
But ere he could speak his royal daughter Amenar- 
tas whispered in his ear and although I could not 
hear her words, I read their purport in her face. 
They were—“Tenes speaks truth. Without Sidon 
you cannot stand against the Persians and Egypt is 
lost. Let the woman go. Isis, understanding, will 


THE DIVINATION 


81 


forgive, who otherwise must see the Persian Holy 
Fire burning on her altars.” 

Pharaoh heard and the anger written in his eyes 
was changed to trouble. Rolling them in his fash¬ 
ion he looked on Noot and said to him as one who 
asks a question, 

“I swore an oath to you, Kherheb, and to yonder 
priest, but to the prophetess I swore no oath and 
perchance Egypt’s fate hangs upon this business.” 

The old high-priest paused awhile like a man 
who awaits a message. If so, it seemed to come, 
for presently he answered in a quiet voice, 

“Pharaoh is right; Egypt’s fate hangs upon this 
business; also Pharaoh’s fate; also that of King 
Tenes and many others. The only fate which is 
not touched, whether it be finished in this way or in 
that, is the fate of yonder seeress who is named 
Isis-come-to-Earth, since the goddess will protect her 
own. Settle the matter as you will, Pharaoh. Only 
settle it swiftly, because under our rule it is time 
that I and my company who wait without should 
return to the temple to make our nightly prayer and 
offerings to the goddess, the Queen of all the earth, 
the Queen of Pharaoh and of Egypt; the Queen of 
the King of Sidon, and in the end the Queen also of 
Artaxerxes Ochus, the Persian, as one day surely he 
shall learn.” 

Thus spoke Noot unconcernedly and hearing him, 
I laughed, for now I was sure that I had nothing to 
fear from Tenes or from any other man upon the 
earth. Therefore I laughed, which that company 
thought strange in one who was about to be borne 
away a slave, and bade Kallikrates give me my veil 
and hood, also the cloak that I had thrown off when 
I entered the banqueting hall. 

He obeyed, and while he was assisting me to cover 


82 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


up my beauty in the folds of that veil, I noted that 
alone among all the men here present, this beauty 
did not seem to stir him at all. Had he been 
clothing a marble or an ivory image of the goddess, 
as every day it was his duty to do at sunrise, anoint¬ 
ing it with perfumes and garlanding it with flowers, 
he could not have been less moved. Or perhaps so 
truly had the priest in him overcome the man that 
he had learned to cloak all the feelings of a man. 
Or perhaps it was because that royal Amenartas 
watched his every movement with her eyes. I know 
not, but this I do know, that his calm angered me 
and it came into my mind that were I not the head- 
priestess of Isis and sworn to her, there should be 
a different tale to tell. Yes, even in that moment 
of destiny this came into my mind, which shows that 
in my soul I had not forgotten the meeting of our 
lips in yonder shrine at Philae. At least I have 
often thought so since, I, who have had much time 
for thought. 

“Priestess, you are mine,” cried King Tenes in 
triumph. “Make ready to sail with me for Sidon 
within an hour.” 

“Do you think that I am yours, King Tenes?” I 
asked in a musing voice as I fastened the folds of 
my veil and arranged the hood. “If so, I hold oth¬ 
erwise. I hold that I, Ayesha, a free-born lady of 
the ancient Arab blood, am not the slave of any 
Phoenician who for a little while chances to be a 
king, but of her who is the Queen of kings, Isis the 
Mother. Nay, Tenes, I am more, I am Isis her¬ 
self, Isis-come-to-Earth. It seems that go with you 
I must, since such is the will of the goddess, but, 
Phoenician, take heed. Should you dare to befoul 
me even with a touch, I tell you that I have strength 
at my command and that ere long Sidon shall lack 


THE DIVINATION 


83 

a king and Set shall gain a subject. For your own 
sake therefore and for that of Sidon, think again 
and let me be!” 

Now the great jaws of Tenes fell and he stared 
at me open-mouthed. 

“Yet you shall go with me,” he muttered thickly, 
“and for the rest Ashtoreth rules in Sidon, not Isis, 
for know that there are two Queens of Heaven.” 

“Aye, Tenes, a false queen and a true, and let the 
false beware of the true.” 

Then I turned to Nectanebes and said, 

“Is it still your command, O Pharaoh, that I ac¬ 
company this ally of yours to Sidon? Bethink you 
ere you answer, since much hangs upon your words.” 

“Yea, Priestess, it must be so. I have spoken 
and my decree is recorded. The fate of Egypt is 
more than that of any priestess and doubtless King 
Tenes will treat you well. If not, you say that you 
have strength to defend yourself against him.” 

Now as I answered, I laughed lightly and the 
sound of my laughter was like the tinkle of falling 
silver. 

“So be it, Pharaoh. To me it is nothing; indeed 
I would see Sidon, the glorious city, while she still 
is Sidon, home of merchants, mistress of the seas. 
Still ere I go, shall I tell you something, Pharaoh, 
of what was shewn to me in yonder bowl before its 
water was turned to blood—by dye from that vase 
which none of you has found? If I remember 
right, for as you who practise magic, know, Pha¬ 
raoh, such visions fade quickly like dreams at dawn 
—I say that if I remember right, it had to do with 
the fate of a great king. Have you ever seen a 
king, O Pharaoh, when in place of the chain of roy¬ 
alty a collar of rope is set about his throat and 
drawn hard till the tongue is thrust from the royal 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


84 

mouth and the royal eyes start from their sockets? 
Nay? Then shall I draw his picture? Perchance 
in days to come you would know it again?” 

“Witch, accursed witch!” shouted Pharaoh. 
“Take her, Tenes, and begone, though sooner would 
I nurture a viper in my bosom,” and rising from the 
board, he turned and fled away. 

Again I laughed as I answered, 

“I must go, but it seems that Pharaoh has gone 
first. Royal Amenartas, watch the good god, your 
father, for I think that he is too superstitious and 
that which men believe fulfils itself upon them.” 

Then I went to Noot and spoke with him—few 
words for already the guards were advancing upon 
me. 

“Fear nothing, Daughter,” he said, “you are 
safe.” 

“I know that I am safe, Master, yet be ready to 
come to my aid when I call, as my spirit tells me that 
call I shall.” 

He bent his head and the guards came up. As 
I went I glanced at the priest Kallikrates, who tak¬ 
ing no note of me or of my fate, still stood staring 
at the royal Amenartas like a statue cut in stone, 
while she stared back at him. 


CHAPTER VII 

The Quelling of.the Storm 

They set me on board a great ship, on the prow of 
which were images of certain gods of the Phoeni¬ 
cians, called by the Greeks Pataeci, not unlike to 
that which the Egyptians worshipped by the name 
of Bes, before which images burned fire. There 
was a royal cabin in that ship which was given to 
me, and with it splendid robes and furnishings of 
gold for my table. 

At dawn we cast off from the quay of the white- 
walled city while thousands of the worshippers of Isis 
who learned that I was being taken from them, 
stood upon the quay and wailed, crying that the 
Mouth-of-Isis was sent away to slavery and that 
where her “Mouth” went, there the goddess would 
follow, leaving vengeance to fall upon their heads. 
For that the head-priestess of Isis should be given 
into the hands of barbarians and their foreign gods 
was such a crime as had not been known in Egypt. 

Therefore they wailed, prophesying evil, and I 
stood upon the stern alone in my white robes, veiled, 
and hearkened to them, for none dared to come near 
to me. Yes, I hearkened and blessed them with my 
hands, whereat they knelt and wailed the more. 

When at last we had passed down the Nile and 
were out upon the great sea, sailing swiftly for 
Sidon over quiet waters, I, Ayesha, having taken 
counsel of the goddess and of my woman’s craft, 
sent for King Tenes, who was also on board the 

85 


86 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


ship, and received him in his own cabin that had 
been given up to me. 

For my heart was black with rage against him, 
and against Nectanebes, Pharaoh of Egypt, who 
had betrayed me, and in my heart I swore that I 
would destroy them both. Yes, there I, the cap¬ 
tive, sat and received the captor king in his own 
cabin, purposing his doom, though how this was to 
be accomplished as yet I did not know. 

“O King,” I said, “I, your slave who, when not a 
slave, was high-priestess of Isis in Egypt and her 
seeress, into whose breast the goddess poured her 
wisdom and her secrets, as indeed still she does, 
would speak with you, and since I could not come to 
you among so many men, have prayed your Majesty 
to come to me. What would you do with me, 
King Tenes, since it has pleased you to force Pha¬ 
raoh to give me into your keeping? Is it an oracle 
that you desire concerning your fate or that of your 
country in the war? If so, I will-” 

“Nay, Priestess,” he broke in hurriedly, “of your 
oracles I and others have had enough. They are 
bitter bread for daily food. Keep them, I pray 
you, to nurture your own soul.” 

“What would you of me then, King Tenes, that 
you have been at such pains to steal me away from 
Egypt, even threatening Pharaoh to break your sol¬ 
emn pact with him if he did not give me into your 
hands, me, the snared bird, who by chance was left 
out of his oath to the high-priest and Isis’s officer, 
the Greek.” 

“Lady Ayesha,” blurted out Tenes, “that I have 
learned to be by birth, daughter of Yarab, once ruler 
of Ozal, upon whom, with the Egyptians, I made 
war in the past and brought to his death, because of 
you, Lady, tell me, you who are wise, what would 



THE QUELLING OF THE STORM 87 

any man of you who had beheld your beauty as I 
saw it some nights gone?” 

“Man, being man, that is, a ravening beast fash' 
ioned like a god in shape but not in soul, would make 
me his prey, Tenes. Such at least was the desire 
of the first Nectanebes whom you aided with the 
ships of Sidon to destroy my father, and of many 
since his time.” 

“Good. Well, I who am a man and something 
more, being not a god indeed, but a great king, 
would make you my prey, as you say, for to tell 
truth, having once looked on you I seek no other 
woman in the whole world.” 

Now I threw back my veil and studied him with 
my eyes. 

“So you would take me for your queen, Tenes? 
Indeed I guessed as much. But what would your 
other queen, for doubtless you have one, say to this, 

° Kin g ? ” 

“My queen!” he said in an astonished voice, “my 
queen?” 

“Surely, Tenes, you would scarcely dare to prof¬ 
fer less than queenship to such a one as I?” 

“May be not. Well, let us say that I would 
make you my queen, since in Sidon it is not difficult 
to be rid of others of whom one may be weary; that 
is, it is not difficult to a king who also is high-priest 
of Baal and of Ashtoreth. Yes, yes, I am sure that 
I would make you my queen. I will offer it to you 
in writing if you desire.” 

“Aye, I do desire it, King, and that there may be 
no faults or traps in it, I myself will draw up the 
writing for you to sign. Only I doubt much 
whether I shall accept the offer if it is made.” 

“Why not, Lady? Is it a small thing to be 
Queen of Sidon?” 


88 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“For Ayesha, daughter of Yarab, high-priestess 
and prophetess of Isis, the wisest and most beau¬ 
teous woman in the world, one who has never turned 
to look on man, it is a very small thing indeed, King 
Tenes. It is so small a thing that I will not deign to 
accept that proffered crown of yours, unless-” 

“Unless what, Lady?” 

“Unless it is made larger, King, so large and 
wide that she who wears it holds rule over all the 
earth.” 

“By Baal, Ashtoreth, and Moloch, all three of 
them, what mean you, Woman?” 

“What I say, Man. I mean that when you are 
monarch, not of Sidon only, but of Egypt, Cyprus, 
Persia, and all the East, then perchance I will marry 
you, unless my fancy changes, as it may do, but cer¬ 
tainly not before.” 

“Surely you are mad,” he gasped. “How can I 
gather all these diadems upon a single brow? It is 
impossible.” 

“Aye, for you it is impossible, King Tenes, but 
for me it is possible. I can gather them and set 
them on your brow and on my own, I who have 
within me all the wisdom of the earth and much of 
the strength of Heaven. Understand that if I de¬ 
sire it and you follow my counsel, I can crown you 
emperor of the world, no less, but the question is, 
do I desire it and will you follow my counsel?” 

“Lady, I swear that you are mad, unless in truth 
you are a goddess as they say in Egypt.” 

“Perchance I am somewhat of a goddess, and be¬ 
ing so, marvel whether for any reward that can be 
given I shall debase myself by taking such a one 
as you to husband, King Tenes. Now, first, look on 
me well and answer whether you do indeed desire 
me and are ready to win me through toil and danger, 



THE QUELLING OF THE STORM 89 

or whether you will let me be. For know, Tenes, 
that though I seem to be your captive, you cannot 
snare me or do me violence. Lay but a finger on me 
against my will, and it shall be your death, since I 
have those to aid me whom you cannot see. Now 
look—and answer.” 

He looked, devouring me with his greedy eyes, 
then said, 

“Of a truth I desire you more than anything on 
the earth, and since I may not do so otherwise, for 
I perceive that you are too strong for me, will take 
you at your own price. Yea, even if I must wait for 
years, still I will take you. Now tell me, most beau¬ 
teous and most wise, what I must do, and swear to 
me that when I am king of all things you will wed 
me.” 

“Aye, Tenes, I swear that when you are king of 
all things I will wed you,” I answered gently, 
laughing in my heart as I remembered that the first 
and last of all things, the greatest of all things, is— 
Death. “Hearken. You shall bring me to Sidon, 
not as a captive but as a strange goddess who has 
come to aid you and your people, and with honour 
shall you receive me in Sidon, causing your priests 
and priestesses to offer me worship and incense.” 

“And if so, what then?” 

“Then, when I have studied your people and your 
preparations for war, we will take counsel together 
and I will show you how you may prevail. Tell me, 
Tenes, do you love Pharaoh Nectanebes?” 

“Nay, Lady, I hate him who asks too much and 
gives too little, as I hated his father before him. 
Still we sleep in the same bed and prop up the same 
wall, and if one of us ceases to support the wall, the 
Persians will push it down on both.” 

“I understand. Yet even so it comes into my 


90 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


mind that perchance you would have been safer had 
you been pushing at the wall with the Persian Ochus 
and not holding it up with the Egyptian Nectane- 
bes.” 

He glanced at me with his shifting eyes and 
answered, 

“I have had that thought, as you know well, but 
having rebelled against Ochus, defeated his satraps, 
and slain thousands of his soldiers, or rather those 
of his father, if I climb the wall I might find spears 
waiting for me on the farther side. Lady, it is too 
late.” 

“Yes, King Tenes, perhaps it is too late; I will 
consider of the matter in your interest and my own. 
But first send me papyrus and writing tools that I 
may set down our pact. When you have approved 
and signed it, then I will consider of this and other 
matters and not before. For the while, farewell. 

He rose and went unwillingly enough and when I 
was alone in the cabin I laughed in my heart. This 
fish had been easy to hook, but he was a large fish 
and strong, and I must beware lest he pull me into 
the deep sea where both might drown together. 
Moreover, the man was hateful to me, more so even 
than that ox-eyed, heavy-jowled Pharaoh, and his 
presence seemed to poison the air I breathed. Yet 
if I entered into this pact with him doubtless I must 
breathe it often, which vexed me who shrank from 
men and their desires, and above all from this man. 
Yet he had done me wrong and insult; he had helped 
the Egyptians to make war upon my people and he 
had taken me as a slave, me, Ayesha, thinking to 
make of me his woman, and cost what it might, I 
would pay him back as I would pay back Nectanebes 
who sold me. 

The papyrus was brought to me by a slave and on 


91 


THE QUELLING OF THE STORM 

it I wrote such a contract as I think was never 
signed by a king before. It was brief and ran 
thus:— 

“Ayesha, daughter of Yarab, high-priestess of 
Isis, prophetess of Isis, known in Heaven and among 
her servants as Isis-come-to-Earth, and Child of 
Wisdom , to Tenes, King of Sidon. 

“When you, Tenes, are king not only of Sidon but 
of Egypt, Cyprus, Persia, and the East, as I can 
make you, if you obey me in all things, then I, 
Ayesha, vow myself to you as your sole wife and 
queen. But if, ere this dignity is mine and yours, 
you dare even to touch my robe, then in the name of 
Isis and speaking with the voice of Isis, I, Ayesha, 
vow to you shame and death in the world and after 
it all the torments of hell and the jaws of the De- 
vourer that await the judgment of Thoth on per¬ 
jured souls beyond the Sun. 

“Accepted and sealed by Ayesha, daughter of Ya¬ 
rab and by Tenes, King of Sidon.” 

Having copied this writing, I sent it to Tenes by 
the slave that he might study it. Awhile later he 
asked audience of me, and entering, said in a thick 
voice that only a madman would set his seal to such 
words. 

I looked at him and answered that it was nothing 
to me whether he sealed or did not seal them; in¬ 
deed that considering all, I should be better pleased 
if he let the bargain be. 

He stared at me and rage took hold of him who 
was inflamed with wine. 

“Who are you,” he said, “that dare to talk thus to 
Tenes the King? You are but a woman clad in the 
robes of a priestess who pretend to powers you have 
not. Why should I not take you and have done?” 

Now I mocked him, answering, 


92 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Because I think you love to sit upon a throne bet¬ 
ter than to lie in a grave, Tenes, even in a king’s 
coffin. Still, as you desire to know more particu¬ 
larly, I will put your question to the goddess, who is 
not far from me even on this ship, and to-morrow 
when the sun is up I will pass on her words to you— 
that is, if you live to look upon to-morrow’s sun, 
King Tenes,” I added, staring him in the eyes. 

These words seemed to sober him, for he turned 
pale and left the cabin, making a sign to avert the 
evil eye, but as I noted, taking the writing with him. 
Yet me he left perplexed and afraid, for my heart 
was not so bold as my mouth! 

Now that night, whether by chance or by the will 
of Heaven, a great tempest sprang up suddenly. The 
captain of the trireme, a Greek or a half-Greek of 
Naukratis, Philo by name, whom now upon this ship 
I met for the first time, came himself to warn me, 
and to make sure that all was fast in my cabin. He 
was a quick-brained man, very active in his body and 
pleasant-faced, with a brown, pointed beard, who 
had seen some five and thirty years upon the earth. 
I had made inquiries concerning him from a certain 
slave who attended me, and was told that although 
he pretended to timidity, this Philo was in truth a 
great warrior and one of the best handlers of a bow 
upon the mouths of Nile, since that which he aimed 
at he always hit, even if it were a fowl in flight. 
Moreover, he was a very good seaman and, it was 
said, faithful to those he served and a worshipper 
of the gods. 

“If so,” I answered to that old slave, “how comes 
it that this Philo, instead of a humble captain, is not 
the first general or admiral among the Greeks, as a 
man of such quality should be?” 


THE QUELLING OF THE STORM 


93 


“Because, divine Lady, of certain faults,” an¬ 
swered the slave, “such faults as have made of me 
what I am instead of the Count of a Nome upon the 
Nile as I should have been. This Philo has always 
thought more of the welfare of others than of his 
own, which is a very evil weakness; also he has 
loved women too much, which is a worse.” 

“Vile sins indeed,” I said, “more particularly the 
second. The wise always think of themselves first, 
and the holy never love more than one woman, and 
her not too much, which perhaps is why the wise and 
the holy are so hateful and so dull. Bring this 
Philo to me; he is one whom I should wish to 
know.” 

In the end Philo came, though whether because 
my message had reached him, or because of the ad¬ 
vancing storm, I am not certain. At least he came, 
and as he bowed before me, made a certain secret 
sign whereby I knew that he was a worshipper of 
Isis and one of high degree, though not of the high¬ 
est, since when I tried him with that sign he could 
not answer. Still his rank in our great company 
was enough, and thenceforward we spoke to each 
other under the seal of the goddess, or as our 
phrase went in those days “within the shadow of her 
wings,” as brother and sister might, or rather as 
mother and son. 

That is, we did this after I had proved him fur¬ 
ther and brought to his mind the fate of those who 
betray the goddess and her ministers upon earth. 

This Philo told me in few words, that although 
the trireme was Egyptian and named Hapi after 
the god of Nile, for this voyage she was under 
charter to Tenes and for the most part manned with 
Sidonians, also with low fellows from Cyprus and 
the coast-ports. These like the Phoenician guards of 


94 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

Tenes, of whom there were fifty on the vessel, wor¬ 
shipped other gods than those of Egypt, that is, 
such of them as worshipped any gods at all. 

Many of these men, Philo said warningly, mur¬ 
mured because a priestess of Isis was on board their 
ship, which they thought would anger the Phoenician 
gods of whom the images had been set upon the 
prow, as might lawfully be done when a vessel was 
hired by Tyre or Sidon. 

I answered laughing that as he and I knew, Isis 
could hold her own against Baal, Astarte, and all 
their company. Then, changing my mien, I asked 
him suddenly what he meant. 

“Only this, Holy one,” he answered: “That if by 
chance the ship came into danger—and I like not the 
signs of the sky and the moaning of the black north 
wind with rocks not two leagues away upon our lee, 
then I say if this ship came into danger, as might 
chance this very night, for here gales grow sud¬ 
denly—well, Holy one, you might be in danger also. 
In such cases, Holy one, sometimes the Phoeni¬ 
cians demand a sacrifice to the Cabiri, the great 
gods of the sea whom we do not worship.” 

“Is it so?” I answered coldly. “Then tell them 
that those who demand sacrifices often furnish the 
victims. Have no fear, my brother-in-the-goddess. 
But if trouble comes, call to me to help you.” 

Then I stretched out to him the sistrum that was 
part of my ornaments of office in which I had been 
brought aboard that ship, and he kissed it with his 
lips and went about his business. 

Scarce had he gone when the black north wind 
began to blow. It blew fearfully, rising hour by 
hour and even minute by minute, till the gale was 
terrible. The rowers could no longer row, for the 
great seas broke their oars, of which the handles 


THE QUELLING OF THE STORM 


95 


struck them, hurling them backward from the 
benches, and the sail they tried to hoist upon the mast 
was torn away and went flapping down the wind 
like a wounded gull. Thus continually the Hapi 
was driven in toward the coast of Syria where, 
still some miles away, the moonlight when it broke 
out between the clouds showed the white surf of 
breakers foaming on the iron rocks of Carmel. 

Toward midnight the tall mast snapped in two 
like a rotten stick and went overboard, carrying with 
it certain men and crushing others. Then terror 
took hold of all the company upon this ship, so that 
they began to cry aloud who believed that black 
death was on them. 

Now one shouted, 

“We are bewitched! At this season there should 
be no such gale, it is against nature.” 

Another answered, 

“Little wonder that we are bewitched who carry 
with us a sorceress of Egypt, one who hates our 
gods, wherefore they are angry.” 

This they said because they had heard the tale of 
the water turned to blood, also of the oracles I was 
wont to utter in the temple at Memphis. For in 
that city dwelt many Phoenicians who were great 
talkers and lovers of strange tales, though now, 
Holly tells me all their race is silent for ever and 
the only tales they hear are those of Gehenna. 

Then arose another shout from many throats, 

“Sacrifice the witch to the gods of the Sea. 
Throw her into the sea that they may take her and 
we may live to look upon to-morrow’s sun!” 

Next there was a rush toward the afterpart of 
the trireme where I was in the cabin. In the waist 
of the ship appeared the captain, Philo, as I saw 
watching from between the curtains, and with him a 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


96 

number of the crew who were Egyptians and faith¬ 
ful to him, perhaps six in all, not more. In his 
hands Philo held a bow, and a drawn short-sword 
was thrust through his belt. 

He shouted to the mob of madmen to stand back, 
but they would not, and led by one of the guards of 
Tenes, crept forward. Philo knelt, resting his 
back against a water-cask, waiting till the ship stead¬ 
ied herself a little on the crest of a wave. Then he 
drew the bow and shot. Very well and straight did 
he shoot, for the arrow pierced that leader of the 
guard of Tenes from breast to back, so that he fell 
down dead. Seeing this, the others grew afraid 
and stayed where they were, clinging to the bul¬ 
warks of the ship or whatever they could grasp with 
their hands. 

Tenes appeared among them. They shouted to 
him and he shouted back to them, but what they said 
I could not hear because of the howling of the wind. 

Philo crept into the cabin and his face was very 
heavy. 

“Holy one,” he said, “make ready to join Isis in 
the heavens. Fearing for his own life, that dog of 
a Sidonian king has consented to your sacrifice and 
I am come to die with you.” 

“The goddess thanks you, O great-hearted man, 
and I, her servant, thank you also,” I said, smiling 
at him. “Yet have no fear, since my spirit tells me 
that neither I nor you shall die this night. Help 
me now and let us go forth and talk with these hiss¬ 
ing snakes of Sidon.” 

“But what will you say to them, Holy one?” 

“The goddess will teach me what to say,” I an¬ 
swered, who in truth did not know what I should 
say. All I knew was that some spirit moved me to 
go forth and to talk with them. 


THE QUELLING OF THE STORM 97 

So we went, I leaning upon Philo as it was hard 
to stand upon my feet, and came to the stump of the 
broken mast in the midst of the hollow ship, all the 
mob of the crew drawing back before me. Here 
with one arm I clung to the mast, and beckoned to 
them with the other in which I held the sistrum of 
our worship. They drew near, Tenes among them, 
his face covered by a cloak. 

“Hearken!” I cried. “I learn that you would 
offer me, the Prophetess of Isis, as a sacrifice to your 
gods. Fools! Is not Isis greater than your gods? 
O Queen of Heaven! send a sign to show that thou 
art greater than these foreign gods!” 

So I spoke and stared upward at the moon, for 
the wind had torn away my veil, and waited. 

A great billow came and struck the forepart of 
the ship, burying it deep in green water. As she 
rose I saw two dark forms fly from her high-tossed 
prow and a voice cried, 

“The guardian images have gone and the sacred 
fire is quenched!” 

“Aye,” I answered, “they are gone where you 
shall go, every one of you, if you dare to touch me. 
Know that I do not fear for my own life which can¬ 
not be taken from me, but for your lives I fear, and 
for Sidon, which presently shall lack a king—if you 
dare to touch me. Be silent now and though you 
deserve it not, I will pray Isis to save you.” 

Then gaping on me standing there like one in¬ 
spired, as indeed I think I was, they were struck to 
silence and through the roaring gale and flying foam 
I prayed to Heaven to preserve that ship and those 
she bore from the grinding rocks on which the surf 
beat not a mile away. 

A marvel happened, whether because the tempest 
had grown weary of its raging, or because That 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


98 

which hears the prayers of men had accepted my 
prayer for its own purposes, to this hour I know 
not. At least the marvel happened, for although 
the sea still beat and rushed, wave following wave, 
like white-maned, countless charging steeds, of a sud¬ 
den the gale died down and there was calm between 
sky and sea. 

“It has pleased the great goddess to hearken to 
me and to save your lives, yes, even the lives of 
you who would have murdered her priestess,” I 
said in a quiet voice. “Now get you to your oars 
and row as never you rowed before, if you would 
hold the ship off yonder rocks.” 

They gasped. They stared with open mouths! 
One said, 

“Thou art the goddess; thou art the very god¬ 
dess! Pardon us, pardon us, thy slaves, O Queen 
of Heaven!” 

Then they rushed to their oars and with toil and 
danger drew the Hapi past the promontory of Car¬ 
mel where the water boiled upon the rocks, and out 
into the deep sea beyond. 

“What did I say to you, Philo?” I said, as he led 
me back to the cabin. 

He made no answer, only lifting the hem of my 
garment, he pressed it to his brow. 


CHAPTER VIII 

The King of Sidon 

Next morning the sun came up in a sky of perfect 
blue and the Hapi, driven forward by the oars, since 
her mast was gone, passed northward over a quiet 
sea. Not a league away upon our right, gleaming 
like gold, were the roofs of the glorious city of 
Tyre, set like a queen upon her island throne, Tyre 
that as yet did not dream of evil days when her 
marble palaces should melt in flame and her mer¬ 
chant princes and citizens lie butchered by the thou¬ 
sand in her streets; Tyre the wanton, the beauteous, 
the wealthy, who sucked riches from all the lands. 

Seeing our shattered state, a boat manned by red- 
capped seamen came out from the Egyptian har¬ 
bour to learn if we needed help. But Philo shouted 
back to its officer that, save for the loss of a mast 
and some men, we had taken no harm in the gale 
and hoped ere night to be safe in Sidon. 

So the boat returned and we rowed on. 

By midday we caught sight of the towers of Sidon 
and within three more hours, the sea being calm, 
had dropped anchor in the southern harbour. 

Now after we left Tyre Tenes the King came to 
visit me in my cabin. At the sight of him my gorge 
rose for I remembered that this dog of a Sidonian 
had consented to the demand of the sailors that I 
should be hurled into the deep as a sacrifice to his 


99 


IOO 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


gods. Yet I restrained my soul and received him 
smiling and unveiled. 

“Hail, King Tenes,” I said, “Isis has been very 
merciful to you in answer to my prayer; for know 
that never again did I think to look upon you 
living.” 

“You are great, Lady,” he answered, staring at 
me with frightened yet devouring eyes. “I think 
that you are as great as that Isis whom you serve, 
if indeed you are not that Isis come to earth, as 
they name you in Egypt. Isis I know not who wor¬ 
ship Ashtoreth, she who is also styled Tanith and 
Baaltis, and like your Isis, is an acknowledged Queen 
of Heaven, but you I know, and your power, for 
did you not cause the terrible tempest to cease last 
night and save us all from death upon the rocks of 
Carmel?” 

“Aye, I did this, Tenes, having strength given to 
me, whence it matters not. It is strange to think, 
is it not?”—here I bent forward and stared him 
in the eyes—“that on board this ship there are 
men so cowardly and so evil that they took counsel 
to cast me to the deep as a sacrifice to their gods, 
and that had they done so, though me, had they 
known it, they could not harm, they themselves, 
every one of them, would have been that sacrifice.” 

Now he writhed and turned colour beneath my 
glance, but answered, 

“Is it so, Lady? Name me those men and they 
shall be slain.” 

“Aye, King Tenes, without doubt they shall be 
slain, every one of them, since Isis does not forget 
a threat of murder against her priestess. Yet I 
name them not. Where is the need when already 
those names are written on the tablets of Heaven? 
Let them be till Fate finds them, since I would not 


THE KING OF SIDON 


IOI 


have you in your rage stain your hands with their 
vile blood. But what would you with me, King?” 

“You know well,” he answered thickly. “I wor¬ 
ship you. I am mad with love of you. When I 
saw you standing by the broken mast and making 
prayer, even then upon the edge of doom, my heart 
melted for you. I say that there is a raging fire in 
my breast that only you can quench,” and he made 
as though he would fall upon his knees before me. 

I motioned to him to remain seated, and answered, 

“I remember, King, that you spoke in this same 
fashion before the storm and that, half in jest, I 
wrote certain terms upon which I would become 
your queen, namely, when you could give me rule 
over all the earth. Wisely, perhaps, to these terms 
you would not set your seal; indeed you asked me 
why you should not take me to be your toy, and to 
that question an answer came to you last night when 
the ship wallowed water-logged and on her lee you 
saw the billows spouting on the rocks of Carmel. 
Also the goddess has told me more of what would 
chance to you should you dare to lift a hand against 
her priestess. I tell you that it is horrible, so 
horrible that I spare you, since if you heard it, you 
would tremble. What need to talk of such a crime 
when such a judgment would follow hard upon its 
heels? So have done, Tenes, and learn that it is 
my pleasure to return to Egypt in this ship.” 

“Nay, nay!” he cried, “I cannot part with you; 
sooner would I lose my crown. I tell you that if I 
lost sight of you and hope of you, I should go 
mad-” 

“Which perchance you may do yet, Tenes,” I 
replied laughing, “if indeed you are not already 
mad after the fashion of tyrants who for the first 
time are robbed of that which they desire. You 



102 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

have my commands, so have done. I would speak 
with Philo the captain as to when he can be ready 
to sail for Nile.” 

“Hearken, Lady, hearken!” he said thickly. “I 
have the writing here. I will sign it in your pres¬ 
ence if you swear to abide by it.” 

“Is it so? Well, Tenes, I do not change my 
word. When you can crown me Queen of Phoeni¬ 
cia, Egypt, Persia, and the rest, as I can show you 
how to do, then I will take you for husband and 
reign as your sole wife. But until then never shall 
you dare so much as to touch me. Now I am 
weary, who last night slept so ill. Do you wish to 
seal the writing, for if so it shall be done before a 
witness whose life and welfare henceforth shall be 
as sacred to you as my own.” 

“Aye, aye, I will seal, I will seal,” he said. 

Then I clapped my hands and the slave who 
waited without appeared. I bade him summon 
Philo, the captain of the ship, and to bring wax. 
Presently Philo came and I told him what was 
needed of him. More, demanding the papyrus 
from Tenes, I read it to both of them, Philo listen¬ 
ing with a stony stare of amazement. Then the 
wax was spread upon the papyrus and Tenes sealed 
it with his seal, which was a cylinder of lapis lazuli 
having images of gods upon it after the old Baby¬ 
lonian fashion. Also, beneath my own, he wrote 
his name in Phoenician letters which I could not 
read. Then Philo as witness wrote his, for being 
half a Greek, he knew this art, and sealed it with his 
seal, a scarab cut in cornelian by no mean artist, 
doubtless a Grecian, which scarab, he said, he had 
taken many years before from the finger of one 
whom he killed in battle. When I looked at what 
it left upon the wax, I laughed, for behold the 


THE KING OF SIDON 


103 


device was that of a Diana, or perchance a nymph, 
shooting with an arrow a brute-faced faun that had 
surprised her at the bath. To my mind the face of 
that faun or satyr was very like to the face of Tenes, 
and Philo thought it also for I saw him glance from 
one to the other, and heard him mutter, “An omen! 
An omen!” beneath his breath in the Egyptian 
tongue which Tenes did not understand. 

When the roll was signed Tenes would have taken 
it, but I answered, 

“Nay, on that day when its conditions are ful¬ 
filled it shall be yours. But till then it is mine.” 

Still I promised to give him a copy of the writing, 
and with this he was, or feigned to be, content. 

When Philo had gone Tenes asked me how he was 
to become ruler of the world and thus to win me. 

I answered that I would tell him later in Sidon 
after I had thought and prayed. But one thing he 
must swear, namely, to listen to no counsels save my 
own, since otherwise he might lose me and with me 
all. He did so by his gods, being at that time 
so bemused that he would have sworn anything if 
thereby he might keep near to me. Moreover, he 
told me that it was his purpose to set me in a 
palace near his own, or perchance in a part of his 
own, that there he might visit me daily and learn 
my counsels. 

I bowed my head and said, the more often the 
better, so long as he came for counsel and no more. 
Then I dismissed him and he went like any slave. 

When he had gone once more I summoned Philo 
and, “under the wings of the goddess,” that is, 
under an oath of secrecy to break which is death, I 
told him, my brother-in-Isis, the meaning of this 
play, namely that I would be avenged upon Tenes 
who had affronted me and the goddess, who also, 


104 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


in his cowardice, had proposed to sacrifice me in 
the deep, an offering to his false divinities. More¬ 
over, I gave him that copy of the writing which I 
had made and, his charter being fulfilled, bade him 
get back to Egypt as soon as might be and deliver 
it to Noot, the high-priest of Isis, and with it all this 
story. 

There at Memphis I bade him bide, having a 
great ship, this one or another, ready, manned 
with brave men, all of them followers of Isis, with 
whom Noot would furnish him, also with the moneys 
needful to hire or buy that ship. There he was to 
wait till my word came. How it would come I did 
not know as yet. Perchance this would be by mes¬ 
senger, or perchance I should talk with the spirit of 
Noot, by means at the command of those initiated in 
the highest mysteries of the goddess. At least 
when my word came he must sail at once and come 
to me at Sidon. 

These things he swore to do. Moreover, I wrote 
a letter which afterward I gave to him to deliver 
to Noot. 

We cast anchor in the harbour, hoisting the royal 
standard of Tenes as best we could on a tall pole 
at the prow. At once gilded barges, on board of 
which were generals and priests, put off from the 
quay, and watching from my cabin, I saw Tenes 
talk earnestly with these notables who from time 
to time glanced toward where I was hidden. Then 
a messenger came to pray me to be pleased to abide 
on board the ship till preparation had been made to 
receive me, a matter to which the king departed to 
attend. So I stayed there and spoke with Philo 
about many things, learning from him much concern¬ 
ing the Sidonians, their wealth and their strength 
in war. 


THE KING OF SIDON 


105 


Two hours later a barge arrived, the royal barge, 
I think, for it was glorious with silks and gold and 
the rowers wore blazoned uniforms. On board this 
barge was Tenes himself and with him, among 
others, priests who wore tall caps, also some priest¬ 
esses. The king came and bowing, led me to a 
carpeted ladder by which I descended into the barge. 
As I went down its steps I said with a laugh, 

“If some had won their way last night, O King, 
I should have left this ship in a very different 
fashion. Well, I forgive them, poor fools and 
cowards, but whether the goddess whom I serve 
will forgive them is another matter”—words at 
which I saw him wince. 

Before I went also I stepped aside and again 
spoke to Philo who stood near the head of the lad¬ 
der, cap in hand. That speech was short yet suffi¬ 
cient, being of but two words, 

“Remember everything.” 

“To the death! Child of Wisdom,” he answered. 

“What says the mariner?” asked Tenes suspi¬ 
ciously. 

“Naught, O King. That is, he only prays me to 
intercede with the goddess lest the fate of those 
who would have harmed me on this ship should 
overtake him also who is its captain.” 

Again Tenes winced and again I smiled. 

We were rowed ashore, and there upon the quay 
waited a chariot drawn by milk-white horses in 
which chariot I was seated, splendidly apparelled 
men leading the horses. In front of me went the 
king in another chariot and behind followed an es¬ 
cort of guards. 

Thus we proceeded through the glorious streets 
of Sidon and being moved thereto, I lifted my veil 
and stood up in the chariot as though I would see 


106 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

these better. Already the fame of my coming had 
spread abroad, so that those streets and the flat 
roofs of the houses were crowded with thousands 
of the people. These, when they saw my beauty, 
gasped with wonder and cried in their own tongue, 

“No woman! No woman! A goddess indeed!” 

Yet I thought that I heard others answer, 

“Aye, a false goddess sent to Sidon to be her 
ruin. 

True words indeed, though, as I think, inspired by 
hate and jealousy rather than from on high. 

We came to a great and noble square, the Holy 
Place it was called, round which stood statues of 
those whom the Sidonians worshipped, Baal, Ash- 
toreth, and the rest of their daemons. Moreover, 
with its back to a temple stood a huge and hideous 
god of brass, who in front of him, upon great hands 
which seemed to be discoloured with fire, held a 
curved tray whereof the inner edge rested on an 
opening in the belly of the figure. I asked of one 
who walked by the chariot what was the name of 
this god. He answered, 

“Dagon whom some call Moloch, to whom the 
firstborn are sacrificed by fire. See, the priests are 
storing the hollow place beneath with wood. Soon, 
doubtless, there will be a great offering.” 

Thenceforward I hated this people, for what 
could one born in Arabia and a servant of Isis, the 
holy and gentle, think of a race that offered 
sacrifice of those born of them to a daemon? Yes, 
I looked on their faces, keen, handsome, and cruel, 
and hated them, one and all. 

We came to the door of the palace where slaves 
ran forward, assisting me from the chariot. By it 
stood Tenes surrounded with glittering nobles and 
white-robed priests who stared at me doubtfully. 


THE KING OF SIDON 


107 


“Be pleased to enter my house, Lady, fearing 
nothing, for there you shall be well lodged and given 
of the best that Sidon has to offer,” said Tenes. 

“I thank you,” I answered, bowing and letting 
fall my veil, “and I doubt it not, for what less than 
her best could Sidon give to the Daughter of Isis, 
the Queen of Heaven?” 

Yes, thus I answered proudly, I who played a 
great game and staked all upon a throw. 

“Here we have another Queen of Heaven and she 
is not named Isis,” I heard one of the dark-browed 
priests mutter to a companion, thinking that I did 
not understand his words. 

They led me into a glorious dwelling wherein were 
chambers more splendid than any that I had seen 
in my journeys through the Eastern world. Gold 
and gems were everywhere and on the walls hung 
priceless trappings dyed with the Tyrian purple of 
that costly sort to use which is the prerogative of 
kings. The very carpets on the floors shone like 
silk and were woven to things of beauty, while the 
lamps seemed to be hollowed from great gems. 

“Who lodges in this place?” I asked of a slave 
when I was alone. 

“Who but the Queen Beltis, divine one,” an¬ 
swered the slave, bowing low before me. 

“Where then is the Queen Beltis? I see her not.” 

“Nay, divine one, she visits her father at Jeru¬ 
salem, whence she should return shortly. Indeed, 
the King has issued orders that other chambers 
should be prepared for her against her coming.” 

“Is it so?” I replied indifferently, but within my 
heart I wondered what this queen would say when 
she came to find her palace inhabited by a stranger 
and a rival. 

Then to the sound of sweet music I ate from 


io8 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


services of gold and drank out of jewelled cups, and 
afterward, being weary, who had rested little on 
that ship and was tempest-tossed, laid me down to 
sleep in a soft and scented bed guarded by women 
and by eunuchs. 

“Easy enough,” thought I to myself, “would it 
be for these to murder me, one unfriended and 
alone in a strange land,” and because of this for a 
little felt afraid who at that time was but as other 
mortals are. On the ship I had feared nothing, for 
there was Philo, a brother of my faith, and with 
him some others who could be trusted. But here I 
was but as a lamb ringed round with wolves. More¬ 
over, besides the wolves there was a lion, the king- 
brute Tenes, who sought to snare me, and whom I 
knew for a liar, not to be trusted whatever he 
might swear. 

Yes, for a little while, perhaps for the first time 
in my life, and certainly for the last, that is, where 
my body was at stake, I felt somewhat afraid, so 
much so that I went to a window-place to watch 
the rising of the moon and to make my prayer to 
Isis of whom it was the symbol, that she would be 
pleased to protect me in this city whither by her will 
I had wandered. 

This window looked out upon that flame-lit 
square which was called the Holy Place. There I 
noted that thousands of those of Sidon were gath¬ 
ered, some of them staring up at the palace to which 
it was known I had been taken, pointing and talking. 
The most of them, however, wandered round the 
great brazen statue, that hideous, devil-faced thing 
whereof I have written, and when they could, caught 
one of the priests by the arm and put questions to 
him. 

Among these, I noticed, were many women, some 


THE KING OF SIDON 


109 


of whom from their mien seemed to be noble, whose 
faces were strange to see. Defiant they were, yet 
in a way proud, as might be the faces of those about 
to do some great deed. Moreover, many of these 
women led or carried children, which little ones they 
showed to the priests who smiled horribly and 
nodded approval, patting the children on the arm 
and even kissing them. 

One lady, after her son had received such a kiss, 
wailed aloud and, clasping him to her breast, turned 
and fled away, whereon the priest cursed her and 
the other women shouted “Shame!” then strove 
to cover up the misery that peeped out of their 
eyes by singing some fierce song in honour of their 
gods. 

Studying this scene, presently the meaning of it 
came home to me. Those children were doomed 
to be sacrificed to the brazen Dagon or Moloch 
whereof I remembered having heard in Jerusalem 
as a devil to whom the firstborn were passed 
through the fire. Yes, and these the mothers had 
brought them there that they might look upon the 
god and grow accustomed to the sight of him. 

Oh! it was horrible, and my heart chilled at the 
thought of such iniquity. What reward from 
Heaven, I marvelled, for a people who practised 
such a faith ? 

As I marvelled an answer seemed to come to me. 
The sun had sunk but there were heavy clouds in 
the sky above upon which struck its departing rays. 
Thence they were reflected on to the city and chiefly 
upon this Holy Place, as it was called, and the 
brazen image that sat there before the temple. 
Yes, from those clouds came red light that filled 
the air and the city beneath and the Holy Place, as 
it were with a mist of blood. It was as though 


IIO 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


everything were dyed with blood, and in the midst, 
ringed round with torches, glowed Moloch, a god of 
blood! 

Then I knew that Sidon was doomed to be 
drowned in blood; that such was the decree of 
Heaven and that I, Ayesha, was the instrument ap¬ 
pointed to loose this spear of death upon her 
beauteous, sinful breast. I shivered at the thought, 
I who love not cruelty or to spend the lives of men, 
though it was true that I would kill Tenes. Yet 
what was I but the lightning in the hands of Fate, 
and can the lightning choose where it will strike? 
Must it not fall whither it is drawn? To this end 
had I been sent to earth, namely that I might bring 
woe upon false Egypt and the peoples who clung to 
her. 

Such was the burden of that dream by which my 
sleep was haunted, such too the command of Heaven 
which again and again Noot the prophet had 
whispered in my ear. I must destroy Egypt, or 
rather her apostate priests and rulers, and after¬ 
ward once more build up the worship of Isis in 
some far land that should be revealed to me. Such 
was my mission, whereof it was decreed that I 
should fulfil the first part and because of my sin 
leave the rest undone. 

Holly the learned tells me that the new faith he 
follows, to which I will not listen who am weary of 
religions and their changeful march toward a 
changeless end, writes it down that free will is given 
to man, that he is able to choose this path and reject 
the other; that he is the master of his own soul 
which he can guide here or there as the horseman 
guides his steed or Philo steered his ship. 

And yet he read to me from the writings of one 
of the great apostles of that faith, a certain holy 


THE KING OF SIDON 


hi 


one named Paulus, words which declared that man 
is predestined ere he was born to eternal life or 
eternal death, to the glory of the light or the un¬ 
fathomed dark. To me these doctrines seem to 
war one upon the other, though for aught I know 
both may be true, seeing that within the circle of 
the starry spheres and the vast soul of That which 
made them, there is room for a multitude of truths 
whereof the shadows falling upon the gross earth 
take a thousand shapes of error. 

Moreover, I hold that whatever is, is true because 
it is, and that men do but tangle themselves in seem¬ 
ing differences that are only varying lights darting 
from the eternal eyes of Truth. On all hearts 
shine those eyes, but none beholds them as his 
brother does, for to each they burn as a separate 
torch of different-coloured flame. Therefore it is 
that men worship many gods not knowing that these 
are the same God whose hands hold all things. 

Thus I sum up the matter. At least through the 
millions of the ages and the multitudes of lives man 
may attain to freedom if his face be set that way of 
his own desire. Yet in his little hour on the earth, 
that falsely he believes his all, looking from birth to 
death and the blackness that bounds them both, he 
is not free but a part of Strengths that are greater 
than his own. Have I, Ayesha, been free, I who 
chose the holy path and fell from it into Nature’s 
gulfs? Did I desire to fall? Did I not desire 
to climb that steep road to the heights of Heaven 
and sit enthroned upon the topmost snows of purity 
and peace? And yet another Might hurled me 
thence and now it is my fate to climb again; by slow 
and painful steps to climb eternally. 

But of these things I will speak in their season, 
telling what is the price those pay who seek to over- 


112 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


leap the bounds that hem us in and to match their 
pettiness against divine decrees. 

These in the midst of the red light that filled 
Sidon like a bowl with blood and shone on me and 
all; on me, the priestess, on the brazen Dagon tow¬ 
ering up against me, on fantastic, lamp-lit temples 
and palaces, on the great place about which they 
stood and the fierce-faced multitude that wandered 
on its marble pavements, there in the window-open¬ 
ing I knelt me down and prayed, lifting my face to 
the pure heavens above. To Isis did I pray, as an 
idolater prays to an image in a cave, because Isis 
was my symbol, or rather to That which is as far 
above Isis as Isis was above me. For I prayed to 
the Soul of that Universe whereof my eyes could see 
a part in the arching skies, and of this Soul what 
was Isis but as one golden thread in a glittering 
garment that wraps the majesty of God? And 
what then was I and what were those fierce-faced 
worshippers of Dagon? 

Oh! in that hour of dedication, for such I felt it 
to be, these truths came home to my heart as never 
they had done before. And this was the sum of 
them, that I and all I could see and know were but 
as impalpable grains of dust, not sufficient to cause 
the delicately hung balance wherein the wilfulness of 
the world is poised against the decrees of the im¬ 
mortal Law to vary by a hair’s breadth. Still I 
prayed and because that which is small yet ever con¬ 
tains that which is smaller, and the smaller finds a 
god in the small, as the small does in the great, from 
that prayer I won comfort. 

My prayer finished I laid me down to rest in the 
golden bed of Beltis, the queen into whose place I 
had been thrust, bethinking me how many and near 
were the dangers by which I was surrounded. That 


THE KING OF SIDON 


113 


brute king desired me for a prey and here in his 
palace I lay in the hollow of his hand. He had the 
key to all my doors; the servants who stood about 
them were his creatures whom at a nod he could 
send to death. I was a stranger in a strange land, 
utterly unfriended, for Philo was far off upon his 
ship; there was nothing between me and him save 
the impalpable veil of fear which I had woven be¬ 
tween us by the strength of my spirit. I was a 
prize to be taken, unarmoured, without javelin or 
arrow to protect me, with nothing, nothing save that 
veil of fear. If he chose to break through it, dar¬ 
ing my curse and that of my goddess, he could do 
so. Then the curse would fall indeed, but it would 
be too late to save me, and I the proud and pure, 
must pass hence defiled, as pass I would. Still 
trusting to the goddess, or rather to the part of 
her which dwelt in me, or to That which was above 
us both, I laid me down and slept. 

At midnight I awoke. The light of the moon flow¬ 
ing through the window-places flooded the splendid 
chamber, catching on the cornices of gold, the pol¬ 
ished mirrors and the silver vessels. The door 
opened and through it wrapped in a dark cloak came 
Tenes. Though his face was hidden I knew him 
by his heavy shape and shambling step. He crept 
toward me like a wolf upon a sleeping lamb. There 
I lay in the golden bed illumined by the moon, and 
watched through the web of my outstretched hair, 
my hand upon the dagger that was buckled to my 
girdle. He drew near, he bent over me breathing 
heavily, and his eyes devoured my beauty. Still I 
feigned sleep and watched him, while my fingers 
closed upon the handle of the dagger. He un¬ 
buckled his cloak, revealing his hook-nosed visage, 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


114 

and a draught of wind seemed to catch it, for it 
flapped and fell from his shoulders, though I felt no 
wind. He stooped as though to lift it, and it would 
seem came face to face with I know not what. Per¬ 
chance it was the goddess invisible to me. Perchance 
it was some picture of his own death to come. I can¬ 
not say. At least his shifting eyes sank in till they 
seemed to vanish beneath the hairy brows, and his 
fat cheeks grew pallid as though the blood were 
draining from them by a mortal wound. Words 
came hissing from his thick lips and they were, 

“Horrible! Horrible! She is indeed divine, for 
gods and ghosts protect her! Horrible! Death 
walks the air!” 

Then he reeled from the room dragging the cloak 
after him, and knowing that I had no more to fear, 
I returned thanks to the guardian spirits and slept 
sweetly. The danger that I dreaded had drawr* 
near and passed—to return no more. 


CHAPTER IX 
Dagon Takes His Sacrifice 

The sun arose on Sidon and drove away the terrors 
of the dark. I too arose and was led to the bath 
by slaves. Then those slaves clothed me in the 
silks of Cyprus, over which I threw a new veil 
bordered with the purple of Tyre. More, they 
brought me gifts from the King, priceless jewels, 
pearls with rubies and sapphires set in gold. Those 
I laid aside who would not wear his gems. Then, 
in another chamber, I ate as before of meats deli¬ 
cately served by bowing maidens. Scarce had I 
finished my meal of fish from the sea and fruit and 
snow-cooled water drunk from a crystal cup, when 
a eunuch came saying the King Tenes craved audi¬ 
ence of me. 

“Let him enter,” I answered. 

Presently he stood before me, making salutation, 
and asked me with feigned carelessness whether I 
had rested well. 

“Aye, great King,” I answered, “well enough, save 
for a single, very vivid dream. I dreamed that Set, 
the god of Evil, rose out of the darkness of hell 
wearing the shape of a man whose face I could not 
see, and that this fiend would have seized me and 
dragged me down into the pit of hell. I was afraid, 
and while I lay as one in a net, there came to me a 
vision of the divine Isis who said, 

“ ‘Where is thy faith, Daughter? If I saved 
thee on the ship, giving thee the lives of all her 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


116 

company, cannot I save thee now and always? 
Fiends shall not harm thee, nor men; swords shall 
not pierce thee nor fires burn, and if any would lay 
hands on thee, on them I give thee power to call 
down my vengeance and to cast them to the jaws of 
the Devourer who, awaiting evil-doers, watches ever 
in the black depth of death.’ 

“Then in my dreams the Mother whispered into 
the ears of that fiend shaped like a man, and pass¬ 
ing her hand before his eyes, showed him certain 
visions, though what these were I know not. At 
the least they caused him to wail aloud with terror, 
also to my sight to fall as from a precipice and, like 
some foul vulture pierced by an archer’s shaft, go 
whirling down, down, and down, into gulfs that had 
no bottom. It was a very evil dream, King Tenes, 
and yet sweet, because it told me that though I 
should journey to the ends of the earth, still I shall 
not pass out of the shelter of the circling arms of 
Is is.” 

“Evil indeed, Lady,” he said hoarsely, biting his 
lips to still the quaver in his voice. “Yet it ended 
well, so what of dreams?” 

“Very well, O King—for me. And as for 
dreams, I, who by gifts and training am skilled 
in their interpretations, hold that for the most part 
they are a shadow of the Truth. I know that cer¬ 
tainly no harm can come to me in your palace over 
which one day I must rule, or in your city where I 
am a guest. Yet doubtless some peril of the spirit 
did threaten me last night, and by the help of 
Heaven was brought to nothing.” 

“Doubtless, doubtless! though of such matters I 
know nothing, who deal with the things of earth, 
not with those of Heaven. But, Lady, I came to 
tell you that this day there is a great sacrifice on 


DAGON TAKES HIS SACRIFICE 


117 

the Holy Place yonder, and that from these win¬ 
dows you will be able to watch it well. It is to 
propitiate our gods that they may give us victory 
in the war against the Persians.” 

“Is it so, King? But where are the victims? I 
see no kine, nor sheep, nor doves, such as are offered 
in Rome and in Jerusalem, or even flowers and fruit 
such as in Egypt we lay upon our gentler altars.” 

“Nay, Lady; here we make more costly offerings, 
tithing our own blood. Yes, here Moloch claims 
the fruit of our bodies, taking them to his purifying 
fires so that their innocent breath may rise as a sweet 
savour to the nostrils of the devouring and protect¬ 
ing gods.” 

“Do you, perchance, mean children, King?” 

“Aye, Lady, children, many children, and among 
these to-day one of my own, the son of a certain Bel- 
tis who is of my household. He is a child of prom¬ 
ise, yet I grudge him not to the god if thereby my 
people may be benefited.” 

“And does this Beltis not grudge him, King?” 

“I know not,” he answered sullenly. “She is a 
woman of the royal House of Israel and is absent 
on a journey. Therefore I know not, and when she 
returns the boy will have joined the gods and it 
will be too late for her to make trouble concerning 
him, should she be so minded.” 

Now horror took hold of me, Ayesha, and my 
soul sickened. 

“King Tenes,” I said, “bethink you of that moth¬ 
er’s heart and, I pray you, spare this child.” 

“How can I, Lady? Must not the king bear 
that yoke which is laid upon the necks of his peo¬ 
ple? If I spare him, would not the mothers of 
Sidon whose young have passed into the fire spit 
at me and curse me—aye, and tear me to pieces if 


118 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


they might? Nay, he must die with the rest. The 
priests have so decreed.” 

“On your head be it, King,” I said and choked in 
my loathing of him. Then a thought took me, and 
I cried to those who were gathered about the door 
of the chamber, captains of the guard, eunuchs, 
slaves, scribes, and a priest or two, 

“Come hither, ye of Sidon, and hearken to the 
words of her who in Egypt is named Oracle-of - 
Isis” 

They came, drawn by wonder, or perchance be¬ 
cause my strength compelled them. 

“Take note of my words and record them,” I 
said, while they stared on me. “Take note and 
forget it not, that I, the daughter of Isis, have made 
prayer to King Tenes of Sidon, that he will spare 
the life of his son and the son of a lady named Bel- 
tis, and that he has refused my prayer. Ye have 
heard me. It is enough. Go!” 

They went, looking at each other, the scribes, as 
I saw, writing down what I had said upon their tab¬ 
lets. Tenes also stared at me curiously. 

“You are an Arab by birth, born of an Egyptian 
mother, and wholly Egyptian in your faith and mind, 
though the Arab courage still strikes through these 
qualities,” he said. “Therefore I forgive you who 
do not understand our customs. Yet, know, Lady, 
that those of Sidon whom it pleases you to call as 
witnesses will think you mad.” 

“Doubtless, Tenes, before all is done, those of 
Sidon will think many things of me, as you will also. 
But what will this lady Beltis think?” 

“I neither know nor care who weary of Beltis 
and her moods,” he answered, scowling. “Beau¬ 
teous one, I sent you jewels. Why do you not wear 
them?” 


DAGON TAKES HIS SACRIFICE 


119 

“The daughter of Isis wears no jewels save those 
the goddess gives her, King. Yet yours shall go 
to enrich her shrines when I return to Egypt, and in 
her name I thank you for them, bounteous King.’ 

“Aye, when you return to Egypt. But how can 
you return if you bide here as my wife?” 

“If I bide here as your wife, then I shall bide as 
the Queen of Egypt as is written in our bond, and 
from time to time the Queen of Egypt must visit 
her dominions, King, and give thanks to the god¬ 
dess for her advancement. Do you understand?” 

“I understand that you are a very strange wo¬ 
man, so strange that I would I had never set eyes 
on you and your accursed beauty,” he answered in 
a rage. 

“What! So soon?” I said, laughing. “That 
this should be so in the beginning makes me wonder 
what you will wish in the end. Why not take your 
eyes off me and have done, King Tenes?” 

“Because 1 cannot. Because I am bewitched,” 
he answered furiously, and rising left me, while I 
laughed and laughed. 

He departed and I went to the window-place to 
breathe air free from the poison of his presence. 
There I saw that the Holy Place beneath was al¬ 
ready filled with tens of thousands of the Sidonians. 
I saw, moreover, that priests were engaged in light¬ 
ing fire at the foot of the great brazen image of 
Dagon, which fire seemed to burn within the image, 
since smoke poured out far above from an opening 
in his head. Moreover, by degrees the copper 
plates of which its vast and hideous bulk was built 
up grew red with heat, so that the upper part of it 
became one glowing furnace. 

White-robed priests, gathered in troops, began to 
offer prayers and celebrate rites of which I did not 


120 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


know the meaning. They bowed themselves to the 
image, they gashed their arms with knives and catch¬ 
ing the blood that fell from them in shallow shells 
of the sea, cast it into the fire. Orators made 
speeches, prophets uttered prophecies. Bands of 
fair women appeared naked to the middle and hav¬ 
ing their breasts gilded, who danced wildly before 
the god. 

Then suddenly there was a great silence and from 
the mouth of some gateway that I could not see, be¬ 
cause it lay almost beneath the balconies of the pal¬ 
ace, appeared the King Tenes clad in gorgeous, 
sacerdotal robes, those, I think, of the high-priest of 
Baal. With him was a woman who led by the hand 
a little boy who perhaps had seen three summers, 
dressed in white with a garland of flowers about his 
neck. Tenes bowed to the glowing image and cried 
in a loud voice, 

“People of Sidon, I the King make sacrifice of my 
son to Dagon the great god, that Dagon may be pro¬ 
pitiated and Sidon may conquer in this war. O 
Dagon, take my son that his spirit may pass through 
the flames and be gathered to thy spirit and that 
thine appetite may feed upon his blood.” 

At these words a great and joyous shout went up 
from the tens of thousands of people, and in the 
midst of the shout Tenes bent down and kissed his 
son, which was the only kindly, human thing that 
ever I saw him do. The child, affrighted, clung to 
his robes, but the woman at his side snatched the 
boy away and ran with him, struggling, to a priest 
who stood by the foot of a little iron ladder of 
which the top rested against the outstretched giant 
hands of the glowing image. 

The priest took the child from the woman, hold¬ 
ing him aloft that the multitude might see him and 


DAGON TAKES HIS SACRIFICE 


121 


know him for the very son of the king. Oh! never 
shall I forget the look upon that child’s face as he 
was thus held aloft in the hands of the brutal priest 
who stood upon the lower rungs of the ladder. He 
had ceased to scream, but his ruddy cheeks were 
blanched, his black eyes seemed to start from his 
head, and his little hands grasped emptily at the air 
or were lifted up to heaven, which indeed was near 
to him, as though in supplication for deliverance 
from the cruelty of man. 

The priest climbed the ladder, bearing the child, 
and I noted a kind of metal covering upon his breast 
and head, set there to shield him from the heat of 
the fiery idol. 

He reached the platform of the outstretched 
hands. The child’s fingers clung to his garments, 
but he tore them free and with a cry of triumph let 
fall the little body into the hollow of the hot hands. 
Then, to drown the victim’s cries, priests standing 
below began to play upon instruments of music, as 
they played, singing some hymn to the god. I saw 
the little arms tossed aloft above the edge of the 
hollow of the brazen hands. Then I saw those 
arms lift themselves, feebly for the last time, and 
that poor, tortured, innocent babe rolled slowly 
into the red abyss beneath, while the savage multi¬ 
tude screamed its delight to heaven. 

This royal sacrifice was accomplished, yet it was 
but the first of many, for woman after woman 
brought her child, or sometimes it was a man who 
brought it, and babe after babe was thrown upon 
the red-hot hands and rolled thence into the flames 
beneath. All the while the priests played upon 
their instruments and sang their songs while the 
shameless priestesses, and others, those with the 
gilded breasts, danced lewdly, tossing up their white 


122 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


arms, and the thousands of the people of Sidon, filled 
with the lust of blood, roared aloud in their drunken 
joy, and the poor mothers, now that the deed was 
done, crept thence, laughing and crying both to¬ 
gether, back to their desolated homes, there to stare 
at the cots emptied into “the bosom of the god.” 

At length I could bear no more of this scene of 
hell, and departing to my sleeping-chamber, caused 
women to draw curtains over the window-places and 
having dismissed them, sat myself down and 
thought. 

A great rage filled me, Ayesha, who have ever 
loved children—will a day come when I shall nurse 
one upon my breast, I wonder, and if so in what star 
will it be born?—and a mighty hate of those ac¬ 
cursed Sidonians. All pity left my heart, even for 
the young who would grow up to be as were those 
who begat them. These sharks and tigers loved 
blood. Good. They should be filled with blood, 
their own blood. All of them were guilty, all, all 
were murderers. Hearken to their horrible re¬ 
joicings! Old men and maidens, young men and 
matrons, the toothless crone and the budding girl, 
the great lords and ladies, the toilers on the deep 
and the traders of the city, the bond and the free, 
from the king down to the meanest slave, all of them 
screamed with hideous rejoicing as babe after babe 
was swallowed by the glowing gorge of the daemon 
they named a god. Therefore I vowed by Isis 
that all of them should pay the price of this innocent 
blood and go down to find their god in hell. Yes, I 
swore it by the Mother and by my own outraged 
soul! 


The next day Beltis came. The King Tenes was 
in my outer chamber fawning on me and watching 


DAGON TAKES HIS SACRIFICE 


123 


me out of his crafty eyes, as I saw through the veil 
that I had let fall over my face, and my flesh crept 
at the sight of him. Trained though I was and 
w T ise though I was, who knew well that the hour had 
not come to strike, scarce could I bear him near me 
who longed to drive my dagger through his lying 
throat. Yet I sat still and listened to his flattery 
and answered him with double-edged and mocking 
words of which he could not read the meaning. He 
told me that already the great sacrifice had borne 
good fruit, since tidings had come of a new victory 
over the vanguard of the Persians, in which five 
thousand of the men of Ochus had perished. 

I answered that I doubted not it would bear yet 
better fruit, then asked him how many of his folk 
dwelt in Sidon. 

He answered, some sixty thousand. 

“Then, O King,” I said, “I who am filled with the 
spirit of the Mother, make a prophecy to you. I 
prophesy that in reward of the piety of this people 
of yours who do not grudge their own children to 
the gods, the gods will take sixty thousand lives 
from among the wicked of the earth who worship 
fire—as I am told these Persians do.” 

“That is a good saying, Lady,” he said, rubbing 
his fat hands, “tohugh it is true that some might 
say that we Sidonians also worship fire, or rather 
Moloch whose belly is filled with flame as we saw 
yesterday.” 

Now while we were speaking and this brute be¬ 
mused was talking thus almost at hazard, for his 
mind was set on me only, I noted that those who at¬ 
tended him slipped from the place, taking with them 
the waiting women and closing the carven doors 
behind them, so that he and I were now alone. 
Guessing that this was done by order, I knew that I 


124 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


must prepare for some outburst of the man’s pas¬ 
sion and took counsel with myself. What it was 
does not matter because of that which followed. 

Already he had begun, for the words, “O most 
beauteous!” had passed his lips when the door burst 
open and through it came a noble-looking woman. 
She was tall, dark, and handsome with swift- 
glancing, tragic eyes, as I knew at once, a Jewess, 
since I had seen others like her in Jerusalem. She 
glanced at me as though wondering what my veil 
hid, and advancing, stood before Tenes. He had 
not heard her come or seen her, his mind being full 
of other matters and his back toward the doorway. 
At the sound of her feet he turned and, coming face 
to face with her, stepped backward three paces with 
a frightened face and uttering some Phoenician 
curse. 

“Have you returned so soon, Beltis?” he asked. 
“What has brought you here before the appointed 
time?” 

“My heart, O Tenes, king and husband. Yon¬ 
der in Jerusalem a prophet of Jehovah said words 
to me that caused me to return and swiftly. Tell 
me, Tenes, where is our son? On my path to this 
chamber I passed through those where he should 
be and found him not. All I found was his nurse 
weeping; aye, so choked with tears that she could 
not answer my question. Where is our son, Tenes?” 

Now he cast his eyes about him like one who finds 
himself in a snare, and answered thickly, 

“Alas! Lady, the gods have taken our son.” 

She gasped and clasped her hands upon her heart, 
saying, or rather moaning, 

“How did they take him, Husband?” 

He looked through the window-place at the hid¬ 
eous brazen image dulled with heat and blackened 


DAGON TAKES HIS SACRIFICE 


125 


by smoke; he looked at the lady with the white face 
and the terrible eyes. Then he strove to speak, 
but as it seemed, could not, for the mumbled words 
choked each other in his throat. 

‘‘Answer!’ 1 she said coldly, but he could not, or 
would not answer. 

Then my spirit moving me, I played a part in this 
ineffable tragedy. Yes, I, Ayesha, threw back my 
veil, saying, 

“Queen, if it pleases you to listen I will tell you 
how your son died.” 

She looked at me wondering, and asked like one 
who dreams, 

“Is this a woman or a goddess, or perchance a 
spirit? Speak on, woman, or goddess, or spirit.” 

“Queen,” I said, “look through the window-place 
and tell me what you see.” 

“I see the image of Dagon, the brazen image 
towering to the housetops, blackened with fire and 
staring at me with empty eyes, and beyond it the 
temple and above it Heaven.” 

“Queen, yesterday I looked from this window- 
place and saw that image of Dagon, only then from 
those empty eyes came flame. Also I saw King 
Tenes lead out a beauteous, black-eyed boy of three 
summers or so, which boy he declared to be his son. 
This boy he gave to a woman, although the child 
clung wailing to his robe. The woman gave him to 
a priest. The priest climbed a ladder—look, there 
it stands—and laid him upon the red-hot hands of 
the idol whence he rolled amidst the plaudits of the 
people into a womb of fire, to be perchance reborn 
in Heaven.” 

Beltis heard, and as she heard her face seemed 
to freeze into a mask of ice. Then she stared at 
Tenes and asked almost in a whisper, 


126 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Are these things so, O dog of a Sidonian, that 
like a dog can devour your own flesh?” 

“The god claimed him,” he mumbled, “and like 
others I must give when the god claims, that victory 
may crown our arms. Who can deny the god? 
Rejoice, O mother, that he has been pleased to ac¬ 
cept that which was born of you.” 

So he mumbled on as priests patter to their idols, 
till at length in that cold silence his voice died away. 

Then Beltis the Queen began to hiss a curse at 
him, such a curse as, save once only, I have never 
heard come from the lips of woman. In the Name 
of Jehovah, God of the Jews, she cursed him, call¬ 
ing down woe and desolation upon his head, con¬ 
signing him to a death in blood and appointing 
Gehenna, as she named hell, as a resting-place for 
his soul, where devils fashioned as children should 
tear him eternally with hooks of flame. Yes, she 
cursed him living and dead, but always in that low, 
whispering voice, that inhuman voice which did not 
seem to come from the throat of woman, such a 
voice as the gods or spirits use when from time to 
time they speak to their servants in the inmost sanc¬ 
tuaries. 

He cowered before her. Once even he sank to 
his knees, holding his hands above his head as 
though to ward off her words of evil omen. Then, 
as she would not cease, he sprang up, shouting, 

“You also shall be a sacrifice, you worshipper of 
the God of the Jews. Dagon is greater than the 
God of the Jews. Be you a sacrifice to him, O 
Sorceress of Israel!” 

He drew the sword at his side and shook it. She 
did not stir, only with her hands she tore upon the 
robes upon her breast, saying, 

“Smite on, dog of a Sidonian, and complete the 


DAGON TAKES HIS SACRIFICE 


127 

circle of your crimes. Where the son went, there 
let the mother follow!” 

Now in madness, or in rage, or in terror, he lifted 
the sword and was about to do the deed, when I 
stepped between him and her. Loosing the veil I 
wore I threw it over her head, and turning, said to 
Tenes, 

“Now, King, touch her who is hid in the veil of 
Isis if you dare. Of Isis I think you have learned 
something on a certain ship when the breakers called 
for you off Carmel, yes, of Isis and her prophetess. 
Know then that she who could save can also slay, 
and give you over to such dreams as came to you, 
Tenes, at midnight by a bed in yonder room. Aye, 
she can slay, and swiftly. Strike then through the 
Veil of Isis and learn whether her prophetess speaks 
truth.” 

He looked at me; he looked at Beltis standing 
still and ghostlike beneath the veil. Then he cast 
down the sword and fled. 

When he had gone I went to the door and shot 
its bolt. I returned, I lifted the veil from about 
that queen. 

“Who and what are you?” she asked, “that can 
brave Tenes in his palace and save one whom he 
would slay, though for that I thank you not. So 

little do I thank you that-” And she stooped to 

grasp the sword. 

Moving swiftly as a swallow flies, I flitted be¬ 
tween her and it. Before her fingers could touch 
it, I had snatched it away who understood her pur¬ 
pose. 

“Be seated, Lady, and listen,” I said. 

She sank into a chair and, resting her head upon 
her hand, regarded me with a cold and curious look. 

“Queen,” I went on, “I am one whom Heaven 



128 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

has sent to this land to destroy Tenes and the Si- 
donians.” 

“Then I welcome you, Stranger. Speak on.” 

So briefly I told her all my tale, and in proof of 
it read to her the writing in which I promised myself 
to Tenes when he could crown me queen of the 
world. 

“So you desire my place and this man?” 

“Aye,” I answered, “as much, or as little, as life 
desires death. Study the conditions. Can he crown 
me queen of all the earth, and under them until he 
does so, can he take me? Do you not understand 
that I would lead the fool on to his ruin?” 

She nodded her head. 

“Then will you not help me?” 

“Aye, Lady, but how?” 

“I will show you how,” and bending forward, I 
whispered in her ear. 

“It is good,” she said when I had finished. “By 
Jehovah my God, and by the blood of my son, with 
you I stand or fall, and when all is done take Tenes 
if you will.” 


CHAPTER X 
The Vengeance of Beltis 

So IT came about that this queen, whose name I 
learned was Elisheba among her own people, the 
Hebrews, Beltis being a title given to her in Sidon, 
and I dwelt together in the palace of Tenes. Leave 
me she dared not, nor would I suffer it who knew 
that then certainly she would be murdered, while 
with me she was safe because Tenes dared not touch 
one whom I sheltered, being afraid of me; one, 
moreover, over whom I had placed the veil of Isis. 
For the rest she was glad to stay with me whom 
soon she learned to love, especially after she had 
heard how I pleaded for her son’s life. 

I, too, was glad that she should do so, both because 
she was a companion to my loneliness and a pro¬ 
tection, since Tenes could not persecute me with his 
passion in her presence, and because she had those 
who loved her in Sidon, certain Hebrews through 
whom we learned much. Yet we were in a strange 
case, the queen who reigned and the queen to whom 
her place was promised, dwelling together like sis¬ 
ters, and both sworn to destroy him who was her 
husband and who desired to be mine. 

For we made a pact together, she swearing by 
Jehovah and I by Isis, that we would neither rest 
nor stay till we saw Tenes dead and his Sidonians 
with him. Oh! if I hated him and these, she, the 
robbed mother, hated them worse, so deeply indeed 


129 


130 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


that if only she might come by vengeance she cared 
nothing for her life. She was a fierce-natured wo¬ 
man, such as those of the Hebrews often are, and 
all her heart’s love had been given to this boy, her 
only child, whom Tenes butchered at the bidding of 
the priests and because of his superstitions. 

From the beginning this Beltis or Elisheba had 
hated the Sidonians and Tenes, to whom she was 
given in a marriage of policy by the rulers of Jeru¬ 
salem because of her beauty and her royal blood, 
and now to her they were but as wild beasts and 
snakes to be destroyed. Yet she was clever also 
and played her part well, feigning sorrow for the 
wild words she spoke in the hour of her agony and 
with it obedience to the wishes of the King. She 
even told him in my presence that when the time 
came she would be willing that I should take her 
crown and she but a second place, or if it pleased 
him better, that she would return to her own people. 
This, however, he did not desire, since he feared 
lest the disgrace of so great a lady should bring the. 
wrath of Jerusalem upon him, or even cause the 
Hebrews to join his enemies. 

So well did she play that part, indeed, making it 
appear that her spirit was crushed and that she was 
one from whom there was nothing to fear, that soon 
Tenes came to believe that this was so, and in order 
to please me he suffered her to dwell on there in 
peace. 

Now I have to tell of the war and of the end of 
Sidon. First I should say, however, that before he 
sailed for Egypt, after the Hapi had been fitted with 
a new mast of cedar, I caused Philo to be summoned 
to the palace by the help of those Jews who were 
the friends of Beltis. He was brought to my pres- 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


131 

ence with two merchants, disguised as one of their 
company, and, while Beltis made pretence to chaffer 
with them for their costly goods, I spoke with him 
apart. 

I told him to get him to Memphis as quickly as 
he might, and there make all ready as we had agreed, 
awaiting my message. How this would reach him, 
or Noot, or both of them, I did not know. It might 
be by writing, or by messenger who would bear cer¬ 
tain tokens, or it might be otherwise. At least when 
it came he must sail at once, and arriving off the port 
of Sidon, every night after the setting of the sun 
and before its rising, must light a flare of green fire 
at his masthead, causing it to burn for the fourth 
part of an hour, so that I might be sure that the 
ship which signalled was his and no other. Then in 
this way or in that I would find means to come 
aboard that vessel, and the rest was in the hands 
of the gods. 

These things he vowed to do and departed safely 
with the merchants, nor did Tenes ever learn that 
Philo had visited the palace. 

Meanwhile Tenes was making mighty prepara¬ 
tions for the war. He dug a triple ditch about 
Sidon and heightened its walls. He hired ten thou¬ 
sand Grecian mercenaries and armed the citizens. 
By help of the Greeks he drove the Persian van¬ 
guard out of Phoenicia, and for a while all went well 
for him and Egypt. At length came the news that 
the vast army of Ochus was rolling down on Sidon, 
together with three hundred triremes and five hun¬ 
dred transports; such an army as Phoenicia had 
never seen. 

One morning Tenes came to my chamber and 
told of the march of Ochus, Beltis withdrawing her¬ 
self. He was in a very evil case, for he trembled 


132 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


and even forgot to say sweet words or to devour me 
with his eyes after his fashion. I asked him why his 
hand shook and his lips were pale, he, who as a war¬ 
rior king, should be rejoicing at the prospect of 
battle. He answered because of a dream he had 
dreamed, in which he seemed to see himself de¬ 
feated by the Persians and cast down living from the 
wall of the city. Then he added these words: 

“You, Lady, promised to show me how to con¬ 
quer the world. Do so, I pray you, for I say that 
my heart is afraid and I know not how I shall stand 
against Ochus.” 

Now I laughed at him and answered, 

“So at last you come to me for counsel, Tenes, 
who for days have been wondering for how long 
you would be content to take that of Mentor of 
Rhodes and of the King of Cyprus. Well, what 
would you learn?” 

“I would learn how I may defeat the Persians, 
Lady, the Persians who pour upon us like a flood 
through a broken wall.” 

“I do not know, Tenes. To me it seems impos¬ 
sible. I think that dream of yours is coming true, 
Tenes, that is-” And I ceased. 

“What, then, must I do, Lady? What is your 
meaning?” 

“I mean that you are mad to fight Ochus.” 

“But I am fighting Ochus.” 

“Those who have been enemies may become 
friends, King Tenes. Have I not told you that you 
would be safer as the ally of Ochus than as his foe? 
What is Egypt to you that you should destroy your¬ 
self to save Nectanebes?” 

“Egypt may be little, Lady, but Sidon is much. 
The Sidonians are pledged to this war and the hand 
of Ochus might be heavy on them.” 



THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


i33 


Again I laughed and answered, 

“Which is dearer to a man, his own life or those 
of others? Fight and die if you will, O King; or 
make peace and perchance let others die if you will, 
O King. They say that Ochus is generous and 
knows how to reward those who serve him.” 

“Do you mean that I should make a pact with him 
and betray my people?” he asked hoarsely. 

“Aye, my words may be so read. Hearken. You 
have great ambitions. You would win the world— 
and me. My wisdom tells me that only thus can 
you win the world—and me. Continue this war, 
and very soon you will lose me and all that you will 
command of Earth shall be such small part of it as 
hides your bones. Now make your choice and trou¬ 
ble me no more, who in truth find little joy in timid 
hearts that fear to take hold of opportunity. There¬ 
fore, follow your counsel or my own, I care not 
which who would be gone back to Egypt to seek a 
higher destiny than that of consort to a conquered 
slave.” 

“Whatever I may lose, you I cannot lose,” he said 
slowly. “Also your mind is mine. This Persian 
is too strong for me, and on Egypt I cannot lean too 
hard lest it break beneath me. These Sidonians, 
also, are rebellious and murmur against me. I think 
that they would kill me if they dared, who now call 
me Child-murderer because I gave my son in sacri¬ 
fice to please the priests.” 

“Mayhap, King,” I answered carelessly, “since 
mobs are fickle. I repeat that the wise man and he 
who would be great does not think of others but 
of himself.” 

“I will consult with my General, Mentor the 
Greek, for he is far-sighted,” he said, and left 
me. 


134 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

“The poison works,” I thought to myself as I 
watched him go. Then I called Beltis and told her 
all that had passed between her lord and me. She 
listened and asked, 

“Why do you lead Tenes down this road, 
Ayesha?” 

“Because of the pit at the end of it,” I answered. 
“Have not your spies told us that this Ochus is im¬ 
placable? He will make a pact with Tenes and 
then he will destroy him. Such at least is the coun¬ 
sel that comes to me from Heaven, which he has 
angered, as I think.” 

“Then I pray that Tenes may follow it, Ayesha, 
so long as it hurls him down to hell, and the Sidon- 
ians with him.” 

As it chanced he did, for it was of a sort that his 
false heart loved. The rest may be told in few 
words. Tenes sent his minister, Thessalion, an¬ 
other crafty fellow, to make a treaty with Ochus. 
These were the terms of this treaty: That he, Tenes, 
should surrender Sidon and in payment receive the 
royalty of Egypt after it had been conquered, and 
of all Phoenicia also, and with it that of Cyprus. 
Ochus swore these gifts to him and continued his 
advance. When he reached a certain spot, he halted. 
Then Tenes, as he had undertaken to do, led out a 
hundred of the chief citizens of Sidon to a Council 
of the States of Phoenicia, or so he said. 

Howbeit, presently they found themselves in the 
camp of Ochus who butchered them to the last man, 
all save Tenes himself, who returned to Sidon with 
a tale of an ambush from which he had escaped. 

Then it was I saw that the end drew near, and in 
a ship, which not Tenes, but the captains of the 
Sidonians sent to Nectanebes at Memphis to pray 
for more aid, I caused a faithful Jew to sail, one 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


i35 


sworn to the service of Beltis, who carried with 
him hidden in the hollow sole of his sandal a letter 
addressed to Noot and to Philo, praying that Philo 
would sail at once and do all those things that had 
been agreed upon between us. Also night by night 
I sent out my spirit, or rather my thought, to seek 
the spirit of Noot, as he had taught me to do, and 
it seemed to me that answers came from Noot tell¬ 
ing me that he read my thought and would do those 
things which I desired. 

The chief men of the Sidonians held a council in 
the great hall of the palace. Hidden behind cur¬ 
tains in a gallery of the hall, Beltis and I saw 
and heard all that passed at this council, over which 
Tenes presided as King. Bitter was the talk of 
those lords, for doubts were abroad. They thought 
it very strange that Tenes alone should have es¬ 
caped from that ambush. Yet like the liar that he 
was, he cozened them with false tales, showing 
them also that the gods of the Sidonians had pre¬ 
served his life, that he in his turn might preserve 
theirs. Yes, he said this and other things, he the 
knave and traitor, who already plotted to destroy 
them all. 

At this council the Sidonians took a desperate 
road. Day by day many were escaping from the 
city by sea and otherwise. Already nigh a third 
of the people had gone, and among them some thou¬ 
sands of the best soldiers, so that the captains saw 
that soon the great city would be left with few to 
defend her. Therefore they came to this resolve 
—to burn all their ships so that no more could flee 
upon them, and to set watches at the gates and 
round the walls with orders to slay any who might 
attempt flight by land. 

Fearing for his life, Tenes consented to these 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


136 

deeds, swearing that he desired but one thing, to 
conquer or to die with the citizens of Sidon. 

So it came about that soon the darkness was made 
as light as day by the flames which sprang from over 
a hundred vessels of war besides a multitude of 
smaller ships, while the Sidonians, watching them 
burn from the roofs of their houses, beat their 
breasts and moaned. For now they knew they were 
cut off and must conquer or perish. 

The ships of Ochus watched the port of Sidon, 
though somewhat carelessly because it was known 
to him that its harbours were empty, and the vast 
army of Ochus rolled down in countless hosts upon 
its walls. 

Hour by hour spies came in with terrible reports, 
causing the hearts of the Sidonians to melt with 
fear. For now they understood that all hope of 
victory was gone and that they were doomed, 
though as yet they did not know that it was their 
king who had betrayed them. 

Another council was held, at which Beltis and I 
watched as before, and there it was agreed that the 
city should throw itself upon the mercy of Ochus. 
Tenes affected to protest and at last to allow him¬ 
self to be overruled, as I, to whom he came day by 
day for guidance, put it into his black heart to do. 
Heralds were sent to the camp of Ochus, offering 
to surrender upon honourable terms, and while they 
were absent bloody sacrifices of children and others 
were made to Dagon and his company in the Holy 
Place before the temple, till its pavements ran red 
with blood. For thus these cruel folk hoped to 
propitiate Heaven and to win mercy from Ochus. 

The heralds returned bearing the word of Ochus. 
He said that if five hundred of the chief citizens 
came out unarmed and made submission to him, he 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


i37 


would grant their prayer and spare Sidon; but if 
they did not, that he would pull it stone from stone 
and slaughter all who lived within its walls. Also 
one of the Persian ambassadors who accompanied 
them brought a secret letter for Tenes. This let¬ 
ter Tenes, who by now did nothing without my 
counsel, read to me. 

It was brief. This was its substance: 

If he would put Sidon into his hands, Ochus swore 
to Tenes by his most solemn Persian oaths advance¬ 
ment greater than he had ever dreamed; and to 
Mentor the Rhodian and the general of the 
Grecian and Egyptian Mercenaries, he swore a vast 
sum in gold and one of the first commands in the 
Persian army. If Tenes would not do this, then 
Ochus proposed to make peace with Sidon for a 
while but afterward to destroy it. To Tenes him¬ 
self, however, he promised death at the hands of the 
Sidonians themselves, to whom all his treachery 
should be revealed. Lastly an answer was de¬ 
manded without delay. 

“What shall I say to Ochus, Lady?” asked Tenes 
of me. 

“I know not,” I answered. “Honour would seem 
to demand that you should lay down your life and 
save Sidon and her citizens, if only for a while. 
Yet, O King, what is honour? How will honour 
help you when you have been torn to pieces by the 
maddened mob upon yonder Holy Place, and your 
spirit has gone to Baal, or wherever the spirits of 
those sacrificed to Moloch may go. Will this empty 
honour give you that great advancement of which 
the Persian speaks, which doubtless will carry with 
it the rule of Phoenicia and of Egypt, and perchance 
also that of the East? For Ochus being mortal, 
Tenes, once you have brought him to his death, as 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


138 

I can show you how to do, who is fitter than your¬ 
self to fill his throne? Lastly, will death with hon 
our bring me whom you desire to your side, King 
Tenes? I have spoken, now judge ,’ 1 and lifting my 
veil, I sat and smiled at him. 

“It is not safe,” he said. “All hangs on Men¬ 
tor and the Greeks. Unless they join in the plot 
the Sidonians will fight to the last with their aid, 
and when they discover my traffic with Ochus they 
will slay me. And if I fly to Ochus and the Sidon¬ 
ians fight, then mayhap he will slay me as one who 
has helped him nothing. But if Mentor joins us, 
then we can open the gates to the Persians and our¬ 
selves go out safe to reap our reward.” 

“There speaks a great man,” I said, “one who is 
fore-sighted, one not tied by petty scruples; there 
speaks such a one as I would take to be my lord. 
Aye, there speaks a man fit to rule the world, 
to whom the great advancement the Persian prom¬ 
ises is but the first rung in the ladder of glorious tri¬ 
umph—that ladder which reaches to the very stars. 
Already these Sidonians hate you, Tenes. I saw 
them mutter when you passed among them yester¬ 
day; aye, and one laid his hand upon his dagger, but 
another checked him, having a look in his eyes that 
seemed to say—‘Not yet.’ If once they learn the 
truth, Tenes, perchance soon you also will lie on the 
altar of sacrifice and be cast living into the fiery jaws 
of Dagon, where your son went before you, Tenes. 
Why do you not send for Mentor and search his 
mind?” 

So Mentor was sent for, and meanwhile I gave 
Tenes my hand to kiss. Yes, I even suffered this 
that I might fix him the more firmly on my hook. 

Mentor came. He was a burly Greek, a great 
soldier with a keen brain behind his laughing eyes; 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


i39 


one who loved gold and wine and women, and for 
these and high place and generalship was ready to 
sell his sword to whoever bid the most. 

Tenes set out the matter to him very craftily and 
showed him the writing of Ochus. He listened, 
then asked, 

“And what does this veiled Daughter of Isis 
think? I remember hearing in Egypt where she 
was held the first of Oracles and named Child of 
Wisdom, that her prophecies never fail to fulfil 
themselves.” 

“The Daughter of Isis thinks that among the Per¬ 
sians Mentor will grow tall, but that here among 
the Sidonians he will be felled like a forest tree and 
go to feed a mighty fire, such a fire as consumed the 
fleets of Sidon awhile ago.” 

Thus I answered, and when Mentor heard my 
words, he laughed and said that he was of the same 
mind, which without doubt was true, for afterward 
I learned that already he had been in treaty with 
Ochus. 

So he and Tenes struck hands upon their bargain, 
the most infamous perhaps that was ever made by 
men, since it gave to slaughter forty thousand or 
more who trusted to them. 

Thus was signed the doom of an accursed people, 
that doom which I was destined to bring upon their 
heads, and thus was Tenes sent down the road to 
hell. Only Mentor prospered greatly for a while 
in the service of the Persians, and what was the end 
of him I do not know. After all, he was but one of 
many who flit from master to master as advantage 
leads them. Doubtless long ago the world has 
forgotten him, his Grecian cunning, his generalship, 
and his treachery. 

The five hundred went out to the Persian camp to 


140 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


plead with Ochus, bearing palm branches in their 
hands; yea, they went with light hearts, for Tenes 
had told them that certainly their prayer would be 
granted and that he knew this from the lips of 
Ochus himself. Led by the priesthoods of the vari¬ 
ous gods—oh! how it rejoiced me to see those vile 
and cruel priests in that company!—they went, but 
not one of them returned again, for Ochus received 
them with mockeries and reviling, and to make sport 
for himself and his soldiers, told them to run back 
to Sidon. Then he loosed his horsemen on them 
and slew them with swords and javelins and set 
their heads on stakes around the walls. 

When the Sidonians knew and saw, they went 
mad with rage and terror. They gathered them¬ 
selves by thousands in the Holy Place and had it 
not been for Mentor and his Greeks, would have 
stormed the palace, for now they were sure that 
Tenes had betrayed them. Indeed Beltis had made 
the truth of this treachery known through the He¬ 
brews who served her. Also they clamoured that 
I, Ayesha, should be led forth and sacrificed, saying 
that it was the presence of a priestess of Isis in the 
city which had caused their gods to desert them. For 
a little while I was afraid, who remembered what 
had chanced upon the ship Hapi when Tenes would 
have suffered me to be thrown to the deep to satisfy 
the superstitions of the sailors. Therefore thinking 
it best to be bold, I sent for Tenes and said to him, 

“If by evil chance I should be slain, O King, then 
know that I have it from the goddess whom I serve 
that you with whose lot mine is intertwined will die 
within an hour. I, Tenes, am the bright star of 
your fortunes, and if I set, farewell to them and 
you.” 

“I know it,” he answered, “as 1 know that without 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


141 

you I can never rise to be king of the world. There¬ 
fore I will defend you to the last; also, beauteous 
one, I desire you for my wife. Yet,” he added, 
“some might think that this star of your wisdom has 
hitherto led my feet into dark and evil places,” and 
he looked at me doubtfully. 

“Fear nothing,” I answered. “ ’Tis ever darkest 
before the dawn and out of evil arises good. Great 
glory awaits you, Tenes, or rather great glory 
awaits both of us. History will embalm your name, 
Tenes.” But to myself I thought that it was the 
Persians who would embalm his body, unless indeed 
they cast it to the dogs! 

Now every evening after sundown it was my cus¬ 
tom to walk upon the flat roof of the palace and look 
out over the ocean which, also for reasons my own, 
rising early, I did before the dawn. That night 
while I walked I put up my prayers to Heaven, for 
though I played so bold a game, its odds seemed to 
be gathering against me. Doubtless, as it deserved, 
this hateful Sidon would fall, but when its walls 
were crashing down, with w T hat should I protect my 
head? I did not know. Yet it is true that never did 
I lose faith. Always I knew that I was the instru¬ 
ment of that Strength which directs the fate of men 
and nations, that what I did was because I was 
driven and commanded so to do for reasons that 
were dark to me; moreover, that I was not an instru¬ 
ment to be broken and thrown aside. Nay, how¬ 
ever strait the path and however great the perils 
that beset it, I was sure that I should walk it with 
safety, because it was fated that I should do so, 
though whither it would lead me I could not tell in 
those days when I was but as other women are. 
Still I put up my prayer to Heaven and scanned the 
horizon with my eyes. 


142 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Lo! far away beyond the lights of the watching 
triremes of Ochus, so far that it seemed almost set 
upon the surface of the sea, burned a faint green 
fire. For the fourth part of an hour it burned, and 
went out. Then I knew that my words had reached 
Egypt, whether in the writing or by the swift path 
of the spirit, and that Noot or Philo had come to 
save me. 

Before the dawn once more I climbed to the roof 
of the palace, and behold! far away again the green 
fire burned upon the bosom of the deep, telling me 
that out yonder the great trireme waited for my 
coming. Aye, but how was I to come? 

Tenes the vile and Mentor the venal played their 
parts well. They opened the gates of the outmost 
wall which the Greeks held, and let in the Persians 
whom these Greeks greeted as brothers, having at 
times served under them in the past. The Sidon- 
ians saw and knew that the dice had fallen against 
them; knew too that they were loaded dice. 

They gathered in the Holy Place and raved for 
the blood of Tenes who cowered behind a curtain 
and hearkened to them. Beltis and I, playing our 
parts, came to comfort him, 

“Be brave!” I said gently. “The road to the 
kingship of the world is steep and difficult. Yet 
when the peak is gained, how glorious, O Con¬ 
queror, will be the prospect spread out before your 
eyes.” 

“It is steep and difficult indeed,” he muttered, 
wiping his brow with the fringe of his broidered 
robe. 

Had he but seen the look which Beltis cast upon 
him, standing behind him with folded arms and 
humble air, perchance he would have thought it 
steeper still. 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


143 


“Let us talk,” I said, “for the end draws near. 
What is your plan? How will you and we, your 
queens, escape from this city?” 

“All is prepared,” he answered. “At the King’s 
wharf, to which a covered way runs from the pal¬ 
ace, in the house where the royal boats are moored, 
is my own barge that, being thus secured, escaped 
burning with the ships. In this barge, which is 
manned with Greeks to whom a great reward is 
promised and who wait in the boathouse day and 
night, we will row from the harbour for a hidden 
bay three leagues down the coast where we will 
land and be escorted thence to the encampment of 
the Great King. Yet perchance it may be wiser 
that I should be with Mentor to welcome Ochus 
when he enters to take peaceful possession of the 
city. If so, Daughter of Isis, you will do well to 
leave it by yourself, or with the lady Beltis if she 
wishes to accompany you, and to meet me in the 
camp of Ochus.” 

“Perhaps that would be better,” I answered, 
“since it might not be thought seemly that the great 
King Tenes should slip away to his ally by night. 
Nay, let him rather march out as a monarch should. 
Only then we must have authority to act as occasion 
may direct.” 

“Aye, Lady, take this ring,” and slipping the 
royal signet from his finger he gave it to me. “It 
will be obeyed by all who see it; moreover, I will is¬ 
sue certain orders. So long as we meet again at 
last, we whose fates are intertwined, it matters not 
by what separate roads we travel.” 

“It matters not at all, my lord Tenes,” I an¬ 
swered as swiftly I hid away the signet. 

It was just then, at the hour of sunset, that Men¬ 
tor entered the chamber. No longer was he gay 


144 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


and light-hearted; indeed his brows were bent and 
his eyes full of trouble. 

“By Zeus!” he said, “a dreadful thing has hap¬ 
pened. In their despair these Sidonians of yours, 
King Tenes, have taken counsel together. They 
have determined that rather than fall into the hands 
of Ochus, they will burn the city and with it them¬ 
selves and their wives and children. Yes, uttering 
the curse of all the gods upon you, thus they have 
determined. Look, the fires begin!” 

We went to the window-places and gazing from 
them, saw desperate men rushing to and fro with 
lighted torches of cedar wood in their hands, while 
other men drove mobs of screaming women and 
children into the houses, yes, and into the temples, 
and shut the doors upon them. Here and there, 
too, from the roofs of these houses rose wisps of 
smoke that soon were mingled with flame. East 
and west and north and south, through the great 
city of Sidon arose that smoke and flame. Every¬ 
where also mobs of the people whose courage failed 
them and who did not desire to die thus were rush¬ 
ing toward the gates and into the camp of the 
Greeks. In this fashion, I believe, that from ten 
to twenty thousand of the inhabitants of Sidon es¬ 
caped, though afterward Ochus the cruel slew many 
of them and enslaved the rest. 

I looked, I saw, and my heart melted within me. 
Hateful as were these insolent, bloodstained folk, 
I grieved that I should have had any hand in bring¬ 
ing their reward upon them. After all, they were 
brave and would have fought to the end, who now 
made expiation by a great self-sacrifice, which was 
also brave. Oh! if I could I would have lifted that 
doom from off them. Then I remembered that it 
was not I who did these things, but Fate which made 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


145 


of me its instrument; remembered also that only 
thus could I escape the foul hands of Tenes. 

I turned to look upon that traitor. He trem¬ 
bled, and trembling tried to seem brave; he laughed, 
and in the midst of his laughter burst into tears. 

“Behold the fate of those who would have slain 
their king! Truly the gods are just,” he said. 
“Now let us fly to the great Ochus and receive from 
him his royal welcome and reward. Truly the gods 
are just!” 

He turned about seeking for Mentor, but Men¬ 
tor had gone. There remained in that chamber 
only Beltis the Queen, he, and I, Ayesha. Beltis 
glided to the door and made it fast. Then she 
came to Tenes and before he guessed her purpose, 
snatched the gold-hilted sword from his belt. She 
stood before him with fierce white face and blazing 
eyes. 

“Truly the gods are just,” she repeated in a low 
and terrible voice. “Fool, do you not know what 
welcome Ochus will give you yonder and what re¬ 
wards? Hearken! That false Greek, Mentor, 
told me of these but now, or pitying my lot, he of¬ 
fered me his love and to take me to safety. After 
I had refused him, he went his way while you stared 
from the window-place.” 

“What words are these, Woman?” gasped Tenes. 
“Ochus is my ally; Ochus will greet me well who 
have served him well. Let us be going.” 

“Ochus will greet you thus, O Tenes; I have it 
from the mouth of Mentor who has it from Ochus 
himself. Slowly he will cause you, a king, to be 
beaten to death with rods, which is the fate the 
Persians give to slaves and traitors. Then he will 
stuff your body with spices and tie it to the mast¬ 
head of his ship, that when presently he sails for 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


146 

Egypt it may be a warning to Nectanebes the Pha¬ 
raoh whom also you have betrayed.” 

“It is a lie, it is a lie!” shouted Tenes. “Daugh¬ 
ter of Isis, tell this mad woman that it is a lie.” 

I stood still, answering nothing, and Beltis went on, 

“Tenes, Fate is upon you. Will you meet it less 
bravely than the meanest of the thousands of this 
people whom you have given to doom? Take my 
last counsel and leap from yonder window, that you 
who have lived a coward and a traitor may at least 
die a man.” 

He gnashed his teeth, he stared about him. He 
even went to the window-place and looked out as 
though he would brave the deed. 

“I dare not,” he muttered, “I dare not. The 
gods are just; they will save me who sacrificed my 
son to them.” 

Then he knelt down in the window-place and be¬ 
gan to pray to Moloch whose brazen image showed 
redly in the gathering gloom. 

“Take your sword, Tenes, if you dare not leap, 
and make an end,” said the cold voice of the fierce¬ 
faced Hebrew lady who stood behind him, whilst I, 
Ayesha, watched all this play as a spirit might that 
is afar from the affairs of earth, wondering how it 
would end. 

But Tenes only answered, 

“Nay, sharp steel is worse than steep air. I 
would live, not die. The gods are just, the gods 
are just!” 

Then he went on praying to Moloch. 

Queen Beltis grasped the handle of the short 
sword with both her hands and with all her strength 
drove it down between the broad shoulders of 
Tenes. 

“Aye, dog of a Sidonian,” she cried, “the gods 


THE VENGEANCE OF BELTIS 


147 

are very just, or at the least my God is just, and 
here—child-slayer—is the justice!” 

Tenes screamed aloud, then struggled to his feet 
and stood striking at the air, the short sword still 
fixed in his back, a dreadful sight to behold. 

“Would you murder me, Jewess?” he babbled, 
and staggered after her, still beating at the air with 
his clenched fist. 

“Nay,” she answered, ever retreating before him, 
“I would but give you your due, or some of it. Go, 
garner the rest in Gehenna’s deep, O butcher of 
children and traitor blacker than the world has 
ever seen. Die, hound! Die, lurking jackal who 
would have mumbled the bones of greatness left by 
the full-fed Persian lion. Die, slaughterer of the 
son that sprang from us, and go meet his spirit in 
the world below, telling him that Elisheba his 
mother, a woman of the royal house of Israel, the 
Queen whom you had rejected, sent you thither. 
Die, while the city, the great City of the Seas, burns 
with the fires that your treachery has lighted and 
the cries of its tortured citizens ring in your ears. 
Pass with them to Gehenna and there strike your 
account, having their fire-shrivelled souls for wit¬ 
nesses and Moloch and Baal and Ashtoreth for 
judges and for company. Die, dog, die! and while 
your brain darkens, remember to the last that it was 
Elisheba, the robbed mother, who gave you to drink 
of the cup of death.” 

So she reviled, ever flitting before him, while he 
staggered slowly after her round the great chamber. 
At length he could no more and fell at my feet, 
grasping my robe, 

“Daughter of Isis,” he babbled, “whom I desired 
and would have made my queen, save me! Is this 
the great advancement that you swore to me?” 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


148 

“Aye, mighty Tenes,” I answered, “since death is 
the greatest of all advancements. In death be king 
of Phoenicia, of Egypt and of the East, since surely 
there you will stand above all thrones, powers, and 
dominions. In death all things will be yours, O 
traitor Tenes, who would have done violence to 
the daughter of Isis, everything save Ayesha’s self, 
who here bids you farewell, vile Tenes.” 

Then, wailing and moaning, he died, and thus 
robbed Ochus of his vengeance upon a tool of which 
he had no further need. 


CHAPTER XI 
The Escape from Sidon 

All was over and done. Within that royal cham¬ 
ber was silence, though without the flames roared 
and the cries of the Sidonians went up to Heaven. 
I, Ayesha, and Beltis the Queen, faced each other in 
the gloom and between us lay the body of Tenes, 
on whose white, distorted face flickered the light of 
the fires that burned without. 

“What now, Queen?” I said. 

“Death, I think,” she answered in a quiet voice, 
for all her rage seemed to have left her. “Why 
cheat his jaws of their richest morsel?” 

“I have still work to do, my hour has not yet 
come, Queen.” 

“Aye, I forgot. Follow me, Daughter of Isis; 
Beltis does not forsake those who have served her. 
Look your last upon this carrion that hoped to call 
you wife, and follow me.” 

As we passed from that chamber I glanced 
through the window and saw that, although dark¬ 
ness now had fallen, the Holy Place beneath was 
bright as noon with the flames of the burning tem¬ 
ple, and that in them the vast graven image of 
Moloch glowed as it had done upon the day of 
sacrifice when the child of Beltis was swallowed in 
its red-hot jaws. There it sat hideous; grinning as 
though in unholy triumph over this greatest of all 
sacrifices. 


149 


150 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Then suddenly a pinnacle from the temple fell 
upon it, grinding it to powder. This was the end 
of Moloch, since, although Sidon, as I have learned, 
was rebuilt in the after years, never more was sacri¬ 
fice made to that devil within its walls. This at 
least I, Ayesha, brought to pass—the end of the 
worship of Moloch at Sidon. 

We passed through my sleeping-chamber, and as 
we went I seized the cabinet of priceless gems that 
Tenes from time to time had heaped upon me, 
since these were sworn to Isis and no goddess loves 
to be robbed of her offerings. At the back of the 
chamber was a passage leading to a door by which 
a lighted lamp had been set in readiness. At this 
door stood a man whom I knew for one of the Jew¬ 
ish servants sworn to the service of Beltis. 

“You are late, royal Lady,” he exclaimed. “So 
late that I was about to flee, for look, the palace 
burns beneath us,” and he pointed to little wreaths 
of smoke that forced themselves up between the 
boards of the flooring of the bedchamber that we 
had passed. 

“Late, but not too late,” she answered. “The 
King detained us and has gone another way. You 
have his orders and here is his ring,” and she 
pointed to the royal signet upon my hand. “Obey 
it and lead on.” 

The man held up the lantern and glanced at the 
ring. Then he bowed and beckoned to us to fol¬ 
low him. 

We went down passages, long passages with many 
turnings, and at length came to another door which 
he opened with a key. Passing it, we found our¬ 
selves in a vaulted place beneath which was water, 
where floated the royal barge, the same in which I 
had been rowed to the shore of Sidon. Oarsmen 


THE ESCAPE FROM SIDON 


151 

sat waiting within this barge, and guarding it were 
two Grecian soldiers, who commanded us to halt. 

“This boat awaits King Tenes,” said one of them 
“and none else may enter it.” 

“I am the Queen,” answered Beltis. 

“With whom I hear the King has quarrelled,” 
broke in the Greek with a sneer. “Queen or no, 
Lady, you cannot enter that boat without the King, 
or an order under his signet.” 

Then I held up my hand, saying, 

“Here is the signet itself. Let us pass.” 

He stared at it by the light of the lamp, then said 
something to the other Greek and very doubtfully 
they obeyed. It was certain that these guards 
standing in that vaulted place did not know what 
was passing in the city. Moreover, I think it had 
come into their minds to rob us, or worse. At the 
least this is sure, that unless we could have killed 
those two Greeks, without the signet never should 
we have won to the boat. 

We went on twelve paces or so and reached the 
barge, which was manned with sailors who wore the 
uniform of the King’s bodyguard, men who knew 
the Queen and saluted her by raising their oars. 
Beltis motioned first to me and afterward to the 
Jew who had been our guide from the palace, to en¬ 
ter the barge, then suddenly she said to the steers¬ 
man who commanded the sailors, 

“Go now whither this lady shall direct you, and 
know that if harm comes to her your lives shall pay 
the price of it, for she is no woman, but a goddess 
whom Death obeys.” 

Now I stared at her and asked, 

“Do you not come also, Queen Beltis?” 

“Nay,” she whispered. “I choose another road 
to safety. Fear not for me, I will tell you all when 


152 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


we meet again. For a while farewell, Child of 
Wisdom and my friend. May the gods with whom 
you commune be your shield upon earth and receive 
you when you leave the earth, you who strove to 
save a certain one and cast your mantle over Beltis 
when a sword that now is set in another’s heart 
was at her own. Give way, sailors,” she cried, “and 
if you would look once more upon the sun, obey.” 

Then with her own hands she thrust at the stern 
of the boat, causing it to move into the channel. 
Next moment Beltis had shrunk back into the dark¬ 
ness and was gone. 

Now I would have returned to seek for her, but 
the Jew at my side called out, 

“Give way! Give way and question not the 
word of the Queen who doubtless has work else¬ 
where. Be swift; doom is behind you.” 

For a moment they hesitated, then bent them to 
their oars while I wondered what might be the 
meaning of the part that Beltis played. Did she 
perchance plan some trap for me? I did not know, 
but this I knew, that behind was the burning city, 
whereas in front lay the open sea. Whatever its 
perils I would face the sea, trusting to destiny to be 
my guide. As for Beltis, doubtless she took some 
other road to freedom. Mayhap after all she 
would shelter with Mentor, or Ochus had prom¬ 
ised her deliverance in payment for the blood of 
Tenes. 

So I sat silent, and presently the channel took a 
turn; the swinging water-gates that hid its mouth 
were thrust open with an oar by a man who stood at 
the barge’s prow, and we passed into the southern 
harbour. 

Yes, out of the darkness we passed into a blaze of 
light, and out of the silence into a hideous tumult of 


THE ESCAPE FROM SIDON 


i 53 


sound. For all around us the city burned furiously 
and from it rose one horrible wail of woe. 

The rowers saw and understood who until now 
had known nothing in the silence of the secret har¬ 
bour cave. They hung upon their oars. Then 
they brought round the barge’s prow seeking to re¬ 
turn into the cave, but could not because those doors 
had swung to behind them and, having locked them¬ 
selves by some device, could only be opened from 
within. Nor indeed could I tell where these were 
since they seemed to form part of the harbour wall. 

The helmsman looked back and from side to side 
at the hell of fire which raged behind and around 
him. He looked at the jutting pier upon our right 
and noted that already its timbers were ablaze. 
Then he looked in front and cried, 

“Now I see why the Queen left us! Well, there 
is but one chance. Onward to the open sea.” 

“Aye,” I echoed, “onward to the open sea. Here 
you must die; there I will lead you to safety. I 
swear it by the Queen of Heaven.” 

“ ’Tis well to talk,” said one, “but how shall we 
gain the sea? Look, the Persians are barring the 
harbour mouth and slaying those who strive to es¬ 
cape.” 

It was true. Many of the miserable inhabitants 
of Sidon had found boats of this sort or of that, or 
even were swimming upon logs or barrels. For 
these the Persians or those in their pay waited at 
the mouth of the harbour and with mocking words 
and laughter butchered them as they came. Yes, 
from their smaller ships they slew them with spears 
and arrows or by throwing stones that drove out the 
bottoms of the boats. 

“Keep in the shadow of the jetty,” I said, “where 
the wind-driven smoke hangs thick and near which 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


i 54 

the triremes dare not come because of the rocks 
whereon it is built, and row, row fast.” 

They heard and obeyed. On we went beneath an 
arching canopy of smoke laced with bursts of flame 
from the kindling timbers, till at length we reached 
the head of the jetty on which stood a wooden tower 
where a light burned at night to be a guide to 
mariners entering the harbour. Here we waited a 
while, clinging to one of the piers, for although the 
wind was rising, in this sheltered place the sea re¬ 
mained calm. 

Rowing across the head of the jetty was a Per¬ 
sian trireme, and until she had gone by we dared not 
attempt the sea. At length she passed, leisurely, 
and our chance came. At a muttered word the oars¬ 
men gave way with all their strength and we shot 
clear of the mole into the open deep. As we did so, 
I looked back and perceived behind and above me a 
sight that after more than two thousand years still 
haunts me in my sleep. 

Upon the end of this timber-crested mole, as I 
have said, there was a wooden tower from which in 
times of peace a beacon burned. Now this tower 
was blazing like the pierway behind it and no beacon 
shone there. Only where it should be stood a wo¬ 
man on whose face the strong light beat, since the 
wind swept away the smoke and revealed her like a 
statue on a column that rises above mist. I looked 
at this shape and this face and saw that they were 
those of Beltis the Queen of Sidon. How she had 
come there, I do not know, but I think that she had 
run along the burning mole before it was too late, 
being well acquainted with the path, and had climbed 
the stairway of the tower, that from its crest she 
might look her last upon Sidon and on life. 

There at least she stood, royal-looking, silent, 


THE ESCAPE FROM SIDON 


155 


with her arms crossed upon her breast, while the 
purple cloak that marked her rank floated behind 
her like a banner on the breeze. 

She saw the barge that bore us shoot out of the 
gloom and reek into the deep sea. I know that she 
saw because she stretched out her arm as though to 
bless us. Then she turned and lifted her hands 
toward the burning city as though to curse it. 
Lastly, once more she folded her arms upon her 
breast and stood motionless, her white face raised 
to the heavens. 

Thus she remained while one might count an hun¬ 
dred, till suddenly the timbers of the tower, gnawed 
through by the flames, fell in and she vanished in a 
roaring gulf of fire. 

Such was the end of that great and ill-fated wo¬ 
man, the royal Beltis, Queen of Sidon, whom, may¬ 
hap in expiation of sin done in another star, the gods 
gave to the arms of perchance the vilest man that 
ever lived upon the earth. Greatly she died, a sac¬ 
rifice, as her son had been a sacrifice, but not before 
she had wrought a fitting vengeance upon the mur¬ 
derer of her child and the betrayer of his people. 
Moloch, god of fire, took her as he took them all, 
but now she was beyond the reach of Moloch, Mo¬ 
loch who was but molten metal, an offering to him¬ 
self. 

In the great flame of the fallen tower the trireme 
that bore the banner of Ochus saw our boat escap¬ 
ing out to sea and put about to pursue it. 

“Row on!” I cried, “row into the darkness,” and 
knowing that their lives hung on the issue, since, as 
we had already seen, the Persians spared none whom 
they overtook in the boats but drove the triremes 
over them, shooting any who swam with arrows, 
those sailors rowed sturdily. Yet our progress was 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


156 

but slow and that of the three-banked ship behind us 
fast; moreover, the fires of burning Sidon lit up the 
sea for miles. 

Could we reach the darkness before we were over¬ 
taken? We came to its edge with the great trireme 
not a hundred paces from our stern—so near indeed 
that the soldiers on board of her began to shoot at 
us, though in the gathering gloom and because of 
the rolling platform on which they stood, their 
shafts went wide. She was right upon us; her hull 
had vanished in the shadows but the light from the 
fires still gleamed upon her gilded masthead, while 
her great oars beat the sea with a sound like thunder. 

“Put about,” I cried, “or she will sink us.” 

Very skilfully the steersman obeyed so that we 
doubled like a hunted hare and the Persian shot 
past us. Then once more we turned and rowed 
on into the night. When it wrapped us round, the 
sailors, exhausted, rested on their oars. Again we 
heard the thunder of the great slave-manned sweeps, 
and again the brazen prow of the tall ship, cruel, 
enormous, hung almost over us. Only by an ell or 
two did the broad blades of the oars miss us, the 
eddies that they made causing our little craft to rock 
dangerously. But this time that huge sea-hound 
was blinded by the darkness and not seeing us, nor 
hearing anything, for we sat silent as the grave, she 
rushed upon her way, and for a time we saw her 
no more. 

All was quiet upon the breast of ocean. Far off 
burned Sidon like a gigantic beacon fire, but there 
came to us no whisper of her agony. Yes, all was 
quiet, save for the sighing of the night wind that, to 
my strange fancy, seemed like to such a sound as 
might be made by the rush of ten thousand spirits 
passing from the cruel earth upward to the peace 


THE ESCAPE FROM SIDON 


i57 


above. Slowly the wearied oarsmen drove the boat 
still farther out to sea; then their captain said, 

“Whither away, Lady? It is in my mind to 
change our course and run for the coast northward, 
where perchance there are no Persians.” 

“Nay,” I answered, “we stay where we are, I 
search for a ship.” 

“Mayhap we shall find one,” he said with a hoarse 
laugh, “a ship of the fleet of Ochus.” 

They began to dispute as to what course they 
should take. 

“Obey me,” I said, “or obey me not, as you will. 
Only then I, who have the counsel of the gods, tell 
you that save I only, by sunrise to-morrow every¬ 
one of you will be dead.” 

They whispered together, for my words fright¬ 
ened them. At length the captain spoke, saying, 

“The great Queen Beltis who is gone told us that 
this woman is a goddess and that what she com¬ 
manded, that we must do. Let us remember the 
words of the great Queen Beltis who is dead and 
doubtless watches us from the sky.” 

So this danger passed also, and all that night we 
floated, keeping the boat’s stern to burning Sidon 
while the most of the oarsmen slept in their places. 
So weary were they that not even the horror behind 
them and the loss of their kinsfolk, or even their 
own fears, could hold them back from sleep. 

But I, Ayesha, did not sleep; nay, I watched and 
thought. If Philo had fled away, or if his ship 
had been sunk, what then? Then all was finished. 
Nay, not so, since it could not be that I should die 
with but half my task accomplished. I was friend¬ 
less among strange men, yet in my breast there dwelt 
the greatest of friends, that spirit whose name is 
Fate. I threw out my soul to my master Noot the 


158 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

Seer, and lo! it seemed to me that his soul answered, 
saying, 

“Fear nothing, Daughter of Isis, for the wings of 
Isis shadow thee.” 

It drew near to the dawn; I knew it by the stars 
which I was wont to watch and by the smell of the 
air. I rose in my seat and stared into the darkness. 
Behold! not four furlongs from our prow suddenly 
there sprang into life a fire of green flame. 

“Awake,” I cried, “and row on swiftly, for if you 
would live you must reach the ship upon which 
yonder fire burns before the breaking of dawn.” 

They obeyed, wondering, who knew not what this 
fire might mean. We sped forward, and as the 
first light gleamed saw almost above us the bulk of 
the great trireme named Hapi. 

“Hail her!” I cried, and the captain did so. One 
appeared by her bulwark rail, holding a lantern. 
Its light shone upon his face and I saw that it was 
that of Philo the Greek. 

“Ye are saved,” I said quietly, “for yonder is the 
vessel that awaits me.” 

“Of a truth this is a goddess!” muttered the cap¬ 
tain of the barge. 

Now Philo saw us in the growing light, and cried 
to us to come swiftly, pointing to something which 
he could discover but we could not. We were 
alongside, eager hands dragged us from the boat. 
We were aboard, I still carrying the casket of jewels 
though at the time I did not know I held it fast. 
Philo bowed the knee to me as to one divine, at 
which our oarsmen stared. Then he shouted a 
command and again pointed behind us. 

Lo! there, scarce two bowshots away, was the 
great Persian ship which we had escaped in the 
gloom of the night. 


THE ESCAPE FROM SIDON 


159 


Our oars struck the water, we leapt forward like 
an unleashed hound, and after us came the trireme 
like a lion springing on the hound. Trireme have 
I called her? Nay, as we saw now, she was a quin- 
quereme, one of the new five-banked ships built by 
Ochus, a mighty monster. For a little while she 
hesitated as though wondering whether to attack or 
let us be. Then as the light strengthened the eyes 
of her watchmen caught sight of our abandoned 
boat and by its gilding and emblems knew it for the 
royal barge of Tenes. 

A great shout arose, a shout of 

“The King escapes. The King and Queen Beltis 
escape. After them!” 

Then the quinquereme leapt forward in pursuit. 
Because of her bulk she was slow in gathering speed 
and we who had the start of her drew away quickly, 
especially after a shift of wind which seemed to miss 
the Holy Fire, for so Philo, who knew her, said the 
Persian was named, filled our great sail. 

Seeing this and hoping that our danger was past, 
I went to that same cabin which had been mine when 
as the captive of Tenes I sailed upon this ship, 
which seemed to be just as I had left it. This I 
did without speech to Philo, save a word to com¬ 
mend to his care the Jew and those others who had 
been my companions upon the barge. 

For now that all was over, it seemed to me as 
though I must rest or die; moreover, I was foul with 
travel and needed food. This indeed I found ready 
upon a table which caused me to wonder, though 
dully, which I did even more when I saw clean 
woman’s garments such as I was accustomed to use 
spread out upon the cabin couch. So I cleansed and 
clothed myself and ate a little, drinking some wine, 
which I did rarely, then lay down upon the couch 


160 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

and for a space, an hour perhaps, slept as though I 
were dead. 

I woke, I knew not why who could have slumbered 
on for hours, yet feeling as though the most of my 
weariness had rolled off me. The place was very 
dim for the curtained door was shut and at first I 
could see nothing. Presently, however, I became 
aware that I was not alone in the cabin. For as my 
eyes grew accustomed to such light as reached it, 
I discovered the shape of a man, an old, white- 
bearded man, kneeling at its far end as though in 
prayer, and wondered whether I dreamed, for what 
could such a one be doing there? Soon indeed I 
was sure that I dreamed, since this shape was that 
of the high-priest Noot, my Master, whom I sup¬ 
posed to be far away in Egypt. Or perchance Noot 
was dead and this was his spirit that visited me in 
my sleep. Spirit or dream or man, words came 
from the lips of that vision spoken in the very voice 
of Noot; such words as these, 

“O Mother Isis, and Thou without a name whom 
Isis and all the gods serve and obey, I thank ye that 
ye have been pleased to bring this maiden in safety 
through her appointed tasks, throwing over her the 
shield of a strength divine. I thank ye that ye have 
led her back to me, her father in the spirit, that 
defilement has not touched her, that fire has not 
burned her, that water has not drowned her, and 
that the foeman’s spears have not pierced her heart. 
I pray ye, O Mother Isis and O Thou without a 
name in the hollow of whose hand lie the world 
and all that live thereon, that as has been the be¬ 
ginning, so may be the end, and that this chosen 
woman may return safe to whence she came, there 
to accomplish those tasks that she was created to 
fulfil.” 


THE ESCAPE FROM SIDON 


161 


Thus that voice prayed on, the holy, well- 
remembered voice, till at length I brought its sup¬ 
plications to an end, saying, 

“Tell me, Noot my father, why do you still fear 
in this hour of deliverance?” 

He rose, he came to me, and drawing aside a 
curtain on a little window-place, scanned me with 
kind and gentle eyes. Then he took my outstretched 
hand, kissed it, and answered, 

“Alas! there is still much to fear, O my daughter, 
but of that you shall learn presently. First tell me 
the story of what has chanced to you since we 
parted.” 

Briefly, omitting much, I told him that tale. 

“It is as my spirit showed me,” he said when I had 
finished. “Heaven has not deceived its servant. 
Your messenger reached us, Daughter, but had he 
died upon the road it would have mattered little, 
since long ere he had set foot in Egypt my soul had 
heard your soul and made all things ready. Yet 
last night, when Sidon burned, I confess that my 
faith failed me and this soul of mine shook with 
fear. Indeed an hour after sunset I thought that 
your ghost passed me, crying that all was done.” 

“Perchance it was the ghost of Beltis that passed. 
But of these things we will talk afterward. I see 
fear in your eyes. Of what are you afraid?” 

“Rise and look through that window-place, 
Daughter.” 

I did so and behold! but a little distance away the 
great quinquereme named the Holy Fire sped 
upon our track, so fast that her five banks of oars 
lashed the sea to foam. 

“Father divine,” said a voice without, a voice 
that I seemed to know, “I have words to say.” 

“Enter and speak,” answered Noot. 


162 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

The door was opened and the curtain drawn, ad¬ 
mitting a rush of sunlight. Lo! there before me 
stood a warrior clad in such armour as the Greeks 
wear and, thus attired, the most beautiful and glori¬ 
ous-looking man that ever my eyes beheld. 

It was Kallikrates, Kallikrates himself, only now' 
in place of the priest’s robe his great form was clad 
in bronze; in place of a chaplet a helm was on his 
head and in place of the sistrum his hand gripped a 
sword hilt. Yes, it was Kallikrates, he whose lips 
in past days had met mine in the holy shrine, but as 
he had been before he had vowed himself to Isis 
because of a certain crime. For now again he was 
a man and a captain of men, not one who with bent 
brows and humble mien from hour to hour mutters 
prayers to an unseen divinity. 

Oh! I will tell truth. When I saw him thus I 
liked him well. Yes, though for long he had been 
nothing to me save a fellow servant of the goddess, 
once more I was thrilled with a cup of that same 
wine which I had seemed to drink when our lips 
met far away in Egypt; once again that fire which 
I had stamped to ashes beneath my feet sprang to 
life and scorched my heart. 

Mayhap it was his beauty, as great perhaps as 
that of any man who ever lived, or mayhap it was 
the light of battle that shone in his gray eyes which 
thus stirred the woman in me. At least I who had 
sickened at the sight of Tenes and all other men, I 
who had given myself to higher things and, rejecting 
the flesh, followed the spirit only, was stirred like 
any common maid who finds her lover at the moon- 
rise. Moreover, Noot, who could read hearts and 
above all my heart, noted it for I saw him smile and 
heard him sigh. 

Perchance Kallikrates also noted something, for 


THE ESCAPE FROM SIDON 


163 

the colour came to his brow—I saw it redden be¬ 
neath the plumed helm of bronze, and he dropped 
those bold and beautiful eyes. More, he sank upon 
his knee, saluting me with the secret sign and saying, 
“Pardon, Child of Wisdom, High-priestess of the 
Queen of Heaven, that once again, if only for a lit¬ 
tle while, I have put on the harness which I used to 
w r ear. It is done to save you, Child of Wisdom. 
It is done by command.” 

“Aye,” said Noot, “it is the command of Her we 
serve that this priest should lift sword on behalf of 
Her and us, her slaves.” 

I bowed my head, but answered—naught. 


CHAPTER XII 
The Sea Battle 

The great Persian ship was on us. Strive as we 
would, we could not escape her. She raced upon 
our beam not a spear’s cast away. I stood upon the 
high poop of the Hapi and saw it all, for the old 
Arab blood was on fire in me, as it had been when I 
charged in the battle where my father fell, and I 
would play no woman’s part. Moreover, my spirit 
told me that I had not escaped from the hands of 
Tenes and out of the burning hell of Sidon, to die 
there upon the sea. 

Standing thus upon the poop by the side of Philo 
the cunning captain, I noted this strange thing, that 
no arrow was shot and no spear thrown from the 
Persian’s decks. She raced alongside of us, that 
was all. I looked at Philo, a question in my eyes, 
and he answered the question briefly between his set 
lips. 

“They think the King and Queen are aboard and 
would take us living. Hark! They shout to us to 
surrender.” 

Again I looked at him, wondering what he would 
do. 

He issued an order and presently our speed slack¬ 
ened so that we fell a little behind the Persian. He 
issued another order and we leapt forward again 
under a changed helm. Now I saw that he was 
minded to ram the Holy Fire . The Persian saw it 

164 


THE SEA BATTLE 


165 

also and sheered off. We ran alongside of her, 
shipping our oars as we came on that side which was 
nearest to her. But the Persian had no time to ship 
hers. Our sharp prow caught her fivefold line of 
sweeps, smashing the most of them as though they 
were but twigs, and casting the rowers in a broken, 
tumbled heap within her deep hold. 

“That was worthy of Philo,” I said, but he, ever 
a humble man, as are all masters of their trade, 
shook his head and answered, 

“Nay, Lady, I missed my mark and now we must 
pay for it. Ah! I thought so.” 

As he spoke, from sundry places on the Holy 
Fire grapnels flew out which caught in the rails, 
ropes and rowing benches of the Hapi, binding the 
two ships together. 

“They are about to board us,” said Philo. “Now, 
Lady, pray to Mother Isis to give us aid.” 

Then he blew two blasts upon his whistle. In¬ 
stantly rose up upon our deck a band of men, nigh 
a hundred of them, perhaps, clad in armour and cap¬ 
tained by the Greek, Kallikrates. Also behind these 
I saw the crew of the royal barge, armed with such 
weapons as they could find, and the sailors of the 
Hapi. 

The Persians thrust out boards or ladders from 
one ship to the other, across which their boarders, 
most of them Greeks, came on in swarms. The 
fighting began and it was very fierce. Our men cut 
down many of the foe and drowned others by cast¬ 
ing off the boards and ladders, so that those on them 
fell into the sea. Still a great number of them won 
on board of us, and oh! fierce was that fray. 
Always in the thickest of it I saw Kallikrates tower¬ 
ing a head above the others, and who now would 
have dreamed that he was a priest of Isis? For he 


166 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


smote and smote and man after man went down be¬ 
fore him, while as his sword rose and fell he shouted 
out some old Greek battle cry, such as once his 
fathers used. 

On a space of deck ringed round with dead and 
dying, he came face to face with the captain of the 
boarders, a great and burly man, also, as I think, a 
Greek. They fought terribly, whilst others paused 
to watch that fray which Homer might have sung. 
Kallikrates was down and my heart stood still. Nay, 
he was up again but his bronze sword had broken 
on the foemen’s mail. 

That foeman had an axe; he swung it up to make 
an end. Kallikrates, rushing beneath it, seized him 
in his arms and they wrestled there upon the slip¬ 
pery deck. The ship lurched; together they stag¬ 
gered to the bulwarks. The foeman loosed one arm 
and drew a dagger; with it he smote Kallikrates 
again and again. Kallikrates bent, and with his 
freed hand seized the man beneath the knee. By a 
mighty effort he lifted him to the bulwark’s edge and 
there they clung awhile. Then Kallikrates with 
that same freed hand smote the other on the brow. 
Thrice he smote and his blows were as those of a 
hammer falling on an anvil. 

The grip of the captain of the boarders loosened 
and his head hung back. Once more Kallikrates 
smote and behold! his foe rolled down and was 
crushed to powder between the swelling sides of the 
two great ships as they ground one against the other, 
while the servants of Isis cheered and the sullen 
Persian hordes gave back. 

I caught sight of Philo thrusting his way along 
the bulwarks. He held an axe in his hand but he 
was not fighting. Nay, he avoided those who 
fought. Once indeed he stood still and gave an 


THE SEA BATTLE 


167 

order, noting, as I had done, that of a sudden the 
wind had begun to blow. Certain sailors who 
heard this order ran to the mast and I saw the 
great sail rising slowly. 

Meanwhile Philo slipped along those bulwarks, 
taking cover beneath them like a jackal beneath a 
wall. But whenever he came to one of the grap¬ 
nels he stopped and smote with his axe, severing the 
rope that held it. Three of them did he sever thus, 
so that the prows of the vessels swung apart. 

Now the great sail was up and filled. The 
Hapi forged ahead, dragging round the stern 
of the Holy Fire by those grapnels that remained. 
The Persians understood and grew frightened. 
Those who were still alive upon our decks rushed 
to the planks and ladders, but few gained them, for 
Kallikrates and the men of Isis were on their heels. 
They were cut down; they fell from the sliding 
planks and ladders, or they leapt into the sea and 
for the most part drowned there. Very soon not 
one of them was left upon our deck. 

The grapnels were torn away, or the ropes broke. 
We were free. Yet the Persian was not beaten, 
for she was full of men of whom those who had 
been killed were but a tithe. 

She, too, hoisted her sail and thrust out fresh 
sweeps to continue the pursuit. Her captain, stand¬ 
ing on her prow, roared out, 

“Dogs of Egyptians, I’ll hang you yet.” 

Philo heard and took up his bow. Now we were 
sweeping across the bow of the Holy Fire; mayhap 
it was a hundred paces away. Philo aimed and 
shot. So truly did he shoot that his arrow struck 
the Persian captain beneath his helm and down he 
went. 

His fall seemed to bewilder the crew of the 


i68 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Holy Fire. They hung upon their oars shouting 
at each other, as though they knew not what to do. 
Then their sail began to rise and I saw that they 
were putting about. 

Philo at my side laughed, a hard little laugh. 

“Mother Isis is good to us,” he said. “See, the 
hunter has become the hunted!” 

Then he gave orders and we came round so that 
our great sail taken aback flapped against the mast. 

“Down with the sail and row,” he shouted, “row 
as never ye rowed before!” 

Those at the sweeps obeyed. Oh ! it was splendid 
to see them bending their broad backs and tugging 
at the oars till these also bent like bows in the water. 
Here was no slave work, for they were servants of 
Isis and free men, every one of them. Philo rushed 
to the steering gear and with the aid of another 
man took charge of it himself. We leapt forward 
like a panther on its prey. The Holy Fire saw and 
strove to escape. Too late, too late! For pres¬ 
ently the sharp prow of the Hapi crashed into her 
side with such a shock that all who stood upon the 
deck were thrown down, I among them. I struggled 
to my feet again and heard Philo screaming, 

“Back water! Back! lest she take us with her.” 

We backed. Slowly the prow appeared again 
from where it was buried three paces deep in the 
foeman’s flank. 

The Holy Fire reeled over; the water rushed in 
through the gap. Crippled and helpless she wal¬ 
lowed; aye, she began to sink. From her swarm¬ 
ing decks went up a yell of terror and dismay. Still 
the water rushed in with an ever-gathering flood 
and still she sank and sank. Men threw up their 
arms, praying for mercy; men sprang into the sea. 
Then suddenly the Holy Fire reared her glittering 


THE SEA BATTLE 169 

prow into the air and stern foremost vanished into 
the deep. It was finished! 

The Persians swam about us, or clung to wreck¬ 
age, praying to be taken aboard. But we rowed on 
coming to the wind again. I know not how it is in 
the world to-day, but then in time of war there was 
little mercy. Egypt alone was merciful because age 
had mellowed her and because of her gentle worship 
of her gentle gods. But now Egypt was fighting 
for her life against the Persian. So we rowed on, 
and those barbarians were abandoned to drown and 
in the world below seek the warmth of the Fire they 
worshipped. / 

Philo left the helm and came to where I stood. I 
noted that he was white and shaken and called to 
one to bring him wine. He drank of it thankfully, 
not forgetting first to pour a libation at my feet, or 
rather at those of the goddess to whom I was so 
near. 

“Bravely done!” I said. “You understand your 
trade, Philo.” 

“Not so ill, Lady, though it might have been 
better. Had I been at the helm we should have 
rammed that swarming hulk before the boarding 
and saved some lives. Well, Set has her now and 
Ochus lacks his finest ship.” 

“It might have been far otherwise,” I said. 

“Aye, Lady. Had I commanded the Holy Fire 
it would have been otherwise, for she had two oars 
and three men to our one, but her captain was 
wanting in sea-craft, and when my arrow found him, 
there was none to take his place. They should have 
swept us with their boarders, but that tall Greek 
captain called Kallikrates, who they tell me was once 
a priest, handled his soldiers well. He is a gallant 
man and I grieve that we are like to lose him.” 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


170 

“Why?” I asked. 

“Oh! because in his fight with a fellow whom he 
flung over the bulwarks, he took a knife-thrust in the 
vitals, which they think will be mortal. See, they 
are bearing him to my cabin,” and he pointed to 
Kallikrates being carried forward by four men—a 
sight that stirred my heart. 

Then Philo was summoned away, for it seemed 
that when the Hapi rammed, she sprang a leak and 
the carpenters called Philo to consult with them as 
to how it might be stopped. 

When they had gone I followed after Kal¬ 
likrates and found him laid in Philo’s cabin. They 
had taken off his armour and the leech, an Egyp¬ 
tian, was cleaning a cut in his thigh whence the 
blood ran down his ivory skin. 

“Is it mortal?” I asked. 

“I know not, Lady,” answered the leech, “I 
cannot tell the depth of the thrust. Pray Isis for 
him, for he has lost much blood.” 

Now I who was skilled in medicine and in the 
treatment of wounds which I had learned from a 
great master in my youth among the Arabs, helped 
that physician as best I might, staunching the blood 
flow and stitching up the cut with silk before we 
bandaged it. 

Moreover, taking from my hand a charmed and 
ancient amulet that gave health and had the power, 
so it was said, to cause the sick or wounded to re¬ 
cover, I set it on the finger of Kallikrates that it 
might cure him. This amulet was a ring of brown 
stone on which were graven certain hieroplyphics 
that meant Royal Son of the Sun. He who gave it 
to me told me that it had been worn by that greatest 
of all healers and magicians, Khaemuas, the eldest 
son of the mighty Rameses. Once only did I see 


THE SEA BATTLE 


171 

this ring again as shall be told. Then of it I lost 
sight and knowledge till, after more than two thou¬ 
sand years, I beheld it on the hand of Holly in the 
caves of Kor. 

As I worked thus the pain of the needle awoke 
Kallikrates from his swoon. He opened his eyes, 
looked up and saw me, then muttered in Greek so 
low that only I who was bending over him heard 
his words. They were: 

“I thank thee, Beloved. I thank thee and the 
gods who have granted that like my forefathers I 
should die no priest, but a soldier and a man. Yea, 
I thank thee, O royal and beautiful Amenartas.” 

Then he swooned again and I left him quickly, 
having learned that it was of the Egyptian he 
dreamed, and doubtless that it was for the sake of 
this same Egyptian that he had changed his sacred 
robe for mail, yes, the Egyptian Amenartas for 
whom he had mistaken me, Ayesha, in the wander¬ 
ings of his weakness. 

Well, why not? What had I to do with him or 
any man? Yet of a sudden I grew weary of the 
world and almost wished that the Holy Fire had 
rammed the Hapi and not the Hapi the Holy Fire. 

Yonder behind us a thousand men were now at 
peace beneath the sea. Being overwrought with 
all that I had endured and seen, almost I could have 
wished that I, too, was at peace beneath the sea, 
sleeping for ever, or perchance to wake again nursed 
in the holy arms of Isis. 

In the cabin sat my master, the prophet Noot, 
staring through the open doorway at the infinite 
blue of heaven above, as I knew that he had done 
during all that fearsome fight. 

He smiled when he saw me and asked, 


172 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Whence come you, Daughter, and why do your 
eyes shine like stars?” 

“I come from the sight of the death of men, my 
Father, and my eyes shine with the light of battle.” 

“With other lights also, I think, Daughter. O 
Ayesha, beauty is yours, wisdom is yours, and you 
are filled with spirit like a cup with wine. But what 
of the cup? What of the cup? I fear me that 
those fair feet of yours have far to travel before 
they reach their home.” 

“What is their home, Father?” 

“Do you not know it after these many years of 
learning? Hearken. I will tell you. Your home 
is God, not this god or that god called by a hundred 
names, but the God beyond the gods. Doubtless 
you will love and you will hate, as you have loved 
and hated. And doubtless you are destined to 
draw up what you love and to come to peace with 
what you hate. Yet know that above all mortal 
loves there is another love in which they must be 
both lost and found. God is the end of man, O Aye¬ 
sha, God or—death. All sin, all stumble on the 
path, but only those who continue on that path or 
who, having lost it, with tears and broken hearts 
seek it again and, like the Sisyphus of fable, thrust 
before them their frozen load of fleshly error, till 
at length it melts in the light that shines above; 
only those, I say, attain to the eternal peace.” 

So solemnly did he speak, uttering the slow words 
one by one, and so deep and holy was the lesson 
that they hid, that I, Ayesha, grew afraid. 

“What have you seen and what do you know, my 
Father?” I asked humbly. 

“Daughter, I have seen you yonder in Sidon re¬ 
joicing in vengeance for vengeance’s sake; aye, glad 
when the vile hound who would have gripped you, 


THE SEA BATTLE 


i 73 


gasped out his life before your eyes. You did not 
slay him, Ayesha, but it was your counsel that gave 
cunning to the thought that planned and strength 
to the arm that dealt the blow.” 

“It was so fated, O my father, and otherwise-” 

“Yes, it was so fated; yet you should not have re¬ 
joiced in the hour of your triumph. Nay, you 
should have sorrowed as the gods sorrow when they 
fulfil the decrees of Destiny. Again I have seen 
you burning with the flame of battle, your heart 
filled with songs of victory when Philo’s skill and 
the Grecian courage of Kallikrates sent those mad 
brutes of Persians to their account. And lastly un¬ 
less I dream- What did you but now in Philo’s 

cabin, Daughter?” 

“I tended a wounded man, my Father, as I have 
the skill to do. Also I gave him an amulet which 
it is said has virtue to heal the sick.” 

“Aye, that was right and kind and the just re¬ 
ward of courage. Did he thank you, Daughter? I 
thought that in the quiet I heard thanks come from 
his lips.” 

“Nay,” I answered sullenly, “his mind wandered 
and he thanked—another woman who was not 
there.” 

Again Noot smiled a little, and answered, 

“Was it so? Then let her name be. Yet re¬ 
member that from such wanderings of a mind dis¬ 
traught ofttimes springs the truth, like water from 
a shattered rock. Oh! Daughter, Daughter, if this 
man forgets his vows, must you do the same? For 
him there is excuse who is a soldier—can we doubt 
it who have looked upon his deeds to-day? He be¬ 
came a priest for love’s sake and the shed blood 
which it brought. But for you there is none—at least 
none upon the earth,” he added hastily. “I pray 




174 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

you, therefore, let this man be, for if you do not, 
my gift of wisdom tells me that you will bring much 
trouble on your head and his. Why will you seek 
after vanity? Is it because in the pride of your 
beauty you cannot bear that another should be pre¬ 
ferred before you and that a fruit which it is not 
lawful for you to pluck, should fall into some other 
woman’s lap? I say to you, Daughter, that this 
beauty is your curse, because to it you demand obe¬ 
dience night and day, although of it you should think 
nothing, remembering its end. You are too proud, 
you are too puffed up. Look upon the stars and 
learn to be humble, lest you should be humbled by 
that which is stronger.” 

“I am still a woman, Father, a woman whose 
mission it is to love and to bear babes.” 

“Then learn to love that which is above and let 
the babes you bear be those of wisdom and good 
works. Is it your part to suckle sinners like any 
hedge-side troll, you to whom the heavens stretch 
out their hands? Is it for you in whose breast 
springs the tree of life to root it up and in its place 
to sow the seed of a woman’s common arts, that 
by their aid you may snatch her lover from a rival? 
Because he sins, if sin he does, should you cease' 
from being holy? Where is your greatness? Where 
are your purity and pride? I pray to you, beloved 
daughter of my spirit, swear to me by Heaven 
which we serve, that with this man you will have 
no more to do. Twice have you sinned—once in 
the sanctuary yonder at Philae when his kiss met 
yours, and now again not an hour gone upon this 
ship, when your heart was torn with jealous rage 
because the name of another woman escaped from 
lips that you thought were about to shape your own. 
Twice have you sinned and twice has the goddess 


THE SEA BATTLE 


175 

turned her head and shut her eyes. But if for a 
third time you should walk into this pit dug of your 
own hands, then know that escape will be hard in¬ 
deed. I tell you”—here his face and his low voice 
hardened—“I tell you that from age to age shall you 
strive unceasingly to wash the stain of blood from 
off those hands and that all your breath shall be¬ 
come a sigh and your every heart-beat shall be an 
agony. Swear then, swear!” 

I looked at his eyes and saw that they were 
alight and unearthly, yes, that some spirit shining 
from within caused them to glow like alabaster 
lamps. I looked at the thin hand which he stretched 
out toward me and saw that it trembled in his 
passion. 

I looked and was moved to obey. Yet ere I did 
so I asked, 

“Were you ever young, my Father? Did you ever 
suffer from this eternal curse which Nature lays on 
men and women because she would not die ? Did you 
ever take the bribe of sweet madness with which she 
baits her hook? Or, as once I think you told me in 
bygone years, were you always holy and apart?” 

He covered his eyes with those thin hands, then 
answered, 

“I was young. I suffered from that curse. 
Whatever I may have said to you in the past when 
you were but a child, I gorged that bait, not once 
but many times, and I have paid the price. Because 
I have paid it to my ruin, I pray you whom I love 
not to empty your heart of its purest virgin gold and 
fill the void with pain and penitence. Easy is it to 
fall, Daughter, but hard, very hard to rise again. 
Will you not swear?” 

“Aye,” I answered, “I swear by Isis and by your 
spirit, O Purified.” 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


176 

“You swear,” he said, whispering, “but will you 
keep the oath? I wonder, aye, I wonder greatly, 
will you keep that oath, O high-hearted woman 
whose blood runs with so red and strong a stream?” 

Then bending forward he kissed me on the brow, 
and rising left me. 

Kallikrates did not die. Under the care of that 
cunning leech or of something above the leech, Death 
was cheated of him, since it seemed that the knife- 
thrust had not reached his vitals, or at least had not 
pierced them beyond repair. Still he was sick for 
a long while, for his whole body was drained of 
blood, so that had he been older, or less vigorous, 
Osiris would have taken him. Or perchance not in 
vain had I set upon his finger that scarab-talisman 
once charmed by Khaemuas. I visited him no more, 
and thus it was not until we were passing up the 
Nile and drew near to Memphis that I saw him 
again. Then, very pale and wasted, yet to my 
fancy more pleasing than he had been, since now 
his face had grown spiritual and his eyes were those 
of one that had looked close into those of Death, he 
was carried in a bed on to the deck. There I spoke 
with him, thanking him in the name of our goddess 
for the great deeds that he had done. He smiled 
and his white face took a little tinge of red as he 
answered, 

“I fear me, O Mouth-of-Isis, that it was not of the 
goddess that I thought in that fray, but rather of 
the joy of battle which I, a priest, had never hoped 
to feel again. Nay, nor was it for the goddess that 
I smote as best I could, since in the extremities of 
war the gates of heaven, which are then in truth 
so near, seem very far away, but rather that after 
all which you had passed, you, with the rest of us, 


THE SEA BATTLE 177 

might not fall into the hands of the heathen fire- 
worshippers.” 

Now I smiled back, for the words, if false, were 
courteous, and replied that doubtless also he, who 
was still young, desired to go on living. 

“Nay,” he answered earnestly, “I think that I 
desire to die rather than to live, and to pass hence 
as often my forefathers have done, sword in hand 
and helm on head. Life is no boon to a shaven 
priest, Lady, one who by his vows is cut oft from 
all its joys.” 

“What is a man’s joy in life?” I asked. 

“Look at yourself in a mirror, Lady, and you 
will learn,” he answered, and there was that in his 
voice which caused me to wonder whether it was 
possible after all that the wrong name came from 
his lips in the wanderings of his mind. 

For then I did not know that a man may love 
two women and at the same time; one with his spirit 
and the other with his flesh, since through all things 
runs this war between the spirit and the flesh. The 
spirit of Kallikrates was always mine, having been 
given to me from the beginning, but with his flesh 
it was otherwise, and perchance while he is in the 
flesh it will so remain. 

Before we reached Memphis a signal was made 
for us to anchor. Then a barge, flying the standard 
of Pharaoh, came off to us from the shore. On 
board of it was Nectanebes himself and with him 
his daughter, the Princess of Egypt, the lady Ame- 
nartas; also certain councillors and Grecian captains 
in his service. 

The Pharaoh and the others came aboard to 
learn tidings of what had chanced at Sidon, and 
were received by Philo and by Noot. Presently 
they demanded to be led to me and I met them on 


178 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

the deck outside my cabin, noting that the eyes of 
Nectanebes were troubled and that his fat cheeks 
had fallen in. 

“So you are returned to us, Oracle-of-Isis,” he 
said in a hesitating voice, scanning my form, for 
my face he could not see because it was veiled. 

“I am returned, O Pharaoh,” I answered, bowing 
before his Majesty. “It has pleased Her whom I 
serve to deliver me out of the hands of King Tenes 
of Sidon, to whom Pharaoh offered me as a gift.” 

“Aye, I remember. It was at that feast when 
the water in the cup you held turned to blood. Well, 
if all I hear is true, there has been blood enough out 
yonder.” 

“Yes, Pharaoh, the Sidonian seas run red with 
it. Tenes, Egypt’s ally, surrendered the city to 
Ochus the Persian, thinking to find great advance¬ 
ment, which he won by death, whereon the Sidonians 
burned themselves in their houses with their wives 
and children. So it comes about that all Phoenicia 
is in the hands of Ochus who advances upon Egypt 
with a mighty host.” 

“The gods have deserted me!” moaned Nectan¬ 
ebes, waving his arms. 

“Aye, Pharaoh,” I answered in a cold voice, 
“for the gods are very jealous and seldom forgive 
those who forsake them and betray their servants 
into the hands of enemies that hate them.” 

He understood and answered in a low, babbling 
voice, 

“Be not angry with me, Oracle-of-Isis, for what 
else could I do? That Sidonian dog, whom may 
Set devour eternally, was mad for you. Always I 
mistrusted him and I was sure that if I refused you 
to him, he would make his peace with Ochus and bite 
me in the back, as indeed he threatened at the feast. 


THE SEA BATTLE 


179 


Also I knew well that Mother Isis would protect 
you from all harm at his hands, which it seems that 
she has done.” 

Now when I heard these words rage filled me and 
I answered, 

“Aye, Pharaoh, Mother Isis has done this and 
more. Have you heard how your poison worked? 
Nay? Then I will tell you. Having sacrificed 
her only son to Dagon, Tenes would have put 
away Beltis, his queen, to give her place to me. Mad 
with hate, Beltis led him into the arms of the Per¬ 
sian and afterward when his treachery was ac¬ 
complished, slew him with her own hand, for I 
saw the deed. And now, Pharaoh, Sidon has 
fallen and with it all Phoenicia, and soon, Pharaoh, 
Egypt will follow Sidon. Aye, I, the Oracle, tell 
you that because you were pleased to throw the high- 
priestess of Isis into the arms of Tenes as though 
she were some singing woman of whom you had 
wearied, these things have come about. Therefore 
too soon there will no longer be a Pharaoh in Egypt 
and the Persian will take the Land of Nile and defile 
the altars of its gods.” 

He heard. He trembled. He had naught to 
say. But there was another who heard also. As 
I had noted, the Princess Amenartas, when she came 
on to the ship, went straight to where Kallikrates 
lay upon a couch beneath an awning on the deck, 
and there talked with him earnestly. What they 
said I could not hear for they spoke together be¬ 
neath their breath. But their faces I could see, 
and watching them I grew sure that the Greek had 
made no error of a mind distraught when he spoke 
this royal lady’s name as I tended his wounds. For 
those faces were the faces of lovers who met after 
long separation and the passing of great dangers. 


i8o 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Leaving Kallikrates this Amenartas had re¬ 
turned to her father and stood at his side listening 
to our talk. Now she broke in fiercely, 

“Surely, Priestess, you were ever a bird of evil 
omen croaking of disaster. You fly to Sidon and 
lo! Sidon burns, yet you escape with wings un¬ 
scorched. Now you flit back to Egypt and again 
wail of woe like a night owl of the desert. How is 
it, O Isis-come-to-Earth, as it pleases you to call 
yourself, that you alone escape from Sidon and re¬ 
turn here to curdle the blood of men with prophecies 
such as those you uttered at the feast when by a trick 
you turned the water into blood? Have you per¬ 
chance made friends with Ochus?” 

“Ask it of Philo the captain of this ship, Lady,” 
I answered in a quiet voice. “Or stay. Ask it of 
yonder priest which perchance will please you bet¬ 
ter, the Grecian who in the world was named Kal¬ 
likrates. Ask them how I showed friendship to 
Ochus by so working through the strength of Isis 
and their skill and valour that the Persian’s finest 
ship of war with a multitude of his sailors and fight¬ 
ing men lies to-day at the bottom of the deep.” 

“Perchance because a captain was skilled and a 
certain priest, or soldier, was brave, that ship is 
sunk with all she bore, but not, I think, through 
you or your prayers, O Oracle. I say to you, 
Pharaoh, my father, that if I held your sceptre I 
would send this Isis-come-to-Earth to seek Isis in 
Heaven ere she bring more sorrows on us and 
Egypt.” 

“Nay, nay,” muttered Nectanebes, rolling his big 
eyes, “speak not so madly, Daughter, lest the 
Mother should hear and once more smite me. 
Hearken. Last night I, who have skill, consulted 
my spirit, the Daemon who obeys me. He came, he 


THE SEA BATTLE 


181 


spoke. I heard him with my ears. Yes, he spoke 
of this prophetess. He said that she drew near to 
Memphis on a ship. He said that she was great, 
almost a goddess, that she must be cherished, that 
to you and me she would be a shelter from the storm, 
that in her is the power of One who sits above. O 
Oracle, O Isis-come-to-Earth, O Wisdom’s Daugh¬ 
ter, forgive the wild words of this royal child of 
mine who is distraught with fear, and know that, to 
the last, Pharaoh is your friend and your protector.” 

“As mayhap, if this Daemon of yours speaks 
truth, before all is done I shall be the protector of 
Pharaoh and of the Princess of Egypt whom it 
pleases to revile me,” I replied. 

Then bowing to him I turned and sought my 
cabin. 


CHAPTER XIII 
The Shame of Pharaoh 

When Pharaoh and his daughter had gone, though 
I did not see them go, I bade farewell to Philo, 
thanking him much and, in reward for all he had 
done, calling down on him the blessing of the god¬ 
dess which he received upon his bended knees. 
Moreover, when he had risen from them he swore 
himself to my service, saying that while he lived 
he would come even from the ends of the earth to 
do my will. Also he showed me how I might call 
him by certain secret ways. 

So we bade farewell for a while, nor did I let 
him go empty-handed, since from those jewels that 
Tenes had heaped upon me, which almost by 
accident I had preserved in my flight, I took certain 
of great value and gave them to him as a gift from 
the goddess. Thus we parted though, as both of 
us were sure, not for the last time. 

So soon as our coming was known the priests and 
priestesses of Isis flocked to the quay in solemn 
procession to receive Noot, their high-priest, and 
me their high-priestess, which they did with sacred 
ceremony and holy chants. By them we were es¬ 
corted through the streets of Memphis to the 
temple of Isis accompanied by many of the crew 
of the Hapi that were of our brotherhood. Among 
them I missed one. 

“Where is the priest Kallikrates?” I asked of 
Noot. 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 


183 

He smiled and answered, 

“I think that he has been taken to the palace of 
Pharaoh to be nursed until he recovers from his 
wounds. Perchance for a while he is minded, or it 
is decreed that he should continue to play a war¬ 
rior’s part. Yet fear not, Daughter; those upon 
whose brow Isis has laid her hands, in life or 
death must return to her at last. They are hawks 
upon a string which, though it stretches, cannot be 
broken.” 

“Aye,” I answered, “in life or death,” and asked 
no more of this Kallikrates. 

In the midst of the rejoicings of the city at our 
safe return, we came to the temple and made sacri¬ 
fice. There it was that I set the jewels of Tenes, 
all save those that I had given to Philo, upon the ala¬ 
baster statue of the goddess in her inmost shrine 
that only I and Noot might enter, and there too by 
signs and wonders she signified to me her acceptance 
of the offering. For here while we stood alone be¬ 
fore the effigy of the goddess in that holy place, a 
trance fell upon Noot and in his trance he spoke to 
me with the voice of Isis and out of her infinite 
heart. This was the divine message that came to 
me through the lips of Noot: 

“Daughter, I, thy mother, know of all that thou 
hast passed and of all that thou must pass. Though 
the barbarian come and the gods of Egypt are 
thrown down and ruin smites the land and thou 
seemest to be left alone, abide thou here till my 
word bids thee to depart. By myself and That of 
which under the name of Isis I am a minister, I 
swear that no harm shall befall thee or that place 
where thou art, or those of my servants who 
remain with thee. Therefore await my commands 
with patience, doing such things as I inspire thee to 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


184 

do, that thou mayest bring the vengeance of the 
gods upon those dogs who desecrate their shrines.” 

Thus spoke Noot in his trance, not knowing what 
he had said until I told him afterward. He lis¬ 
tened earnestly and bade me obey. 

“Even if I be taken from you for a while, as it 
comes to me will happen—perchance I learned it in 
my swoon, Daughter—and you are left unfriended 
and alone, still I pray you to obey. If so, think not 
that I am dead, who do but return to my own place 
and land, but wait until my message comes. Then 
obey that also though I know not what it will be.” 

Thus he spoke solemnly and I bowed my head 
and hid his words within my heart- 

The war began, Egypt’s last war for life. Nec- 
tanebes the Pharaoh, inspired by his evil Daemon, 
thrust aside his captains and declared himself Gen¬ 
eral in Chief of his armies, he who had scarce the 
wit or the courage to command the guard of a ha¬ 
rem. At first that Daemon served him well, since 
at Barathra, as the gulfs are named which make 
the Sirbonian bog, the Persians were trapped and 
lost many thousands of their men who sank through 
the sand into the marshes and there were drowned 
or speared. But their numbers were uncountable 
and the rest came on. Pelusium was besieged 
and for a while held its own against the giant Nico- 
stratus of Argos, a man as strong as Hercules who, 
like Hercules, clothed himself in a lion’s skin and 
for a weapon bore a great club. The Grecian 
captain, Kleinios of Cos, he who had been present 
at the feast when I was given over to Tenes and 
whom in my vision at that feast I had seen dead, 
lying upon a heap of slain, attacked Nicostratus 
and after a mighty fight was defeated, Kleinios and 



THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 185 

five thousand men of those who were with him be¬ 
ing slain. Thus was my vision fulfilled. 

Then his Daemon departed from Nectanebes tak¬ 
ing his heart with him, for of a sudden Pharaoh 
ceased to be a man and, becoming a coward, fled 
back to Memphis, leaving his fleet, his cities, and 
their garrisons to their fate. 

Rumour ran fast; it told of the fall of city after 
city, some stormed, some bribed to surrender; it 
told that Ochus had sworn to burn Memphis and 
after it Thebes; also to seize Nectanebes and roast 
him living upon the altar in the great temple of 
Ptah here at Memphis, or otherwise to make him 
fight with the bull Apis after the beast had been 
driven mad by fiery darts. It told that the Egyp¬ 
tians, enraged at the desertion of their armies by 
Pharaoh, would themselves seize him and give him 
up to Ochus as a peace-offering. Crowds gathered 
and rushed through the streets of Memphis calling 
imprecations on his name, or clustered like bees 
round the altars of the gods, praying for help in 
their despair, yes, round the neglected altars of 
the gods of Egypt. 

Then of a sudden came Amenartas, flying to the 
temple of Isis for sanctuary, since it was reported 
that Ochus had said that the shrines of Isis he 
would spare alone, because she was the Mother 
of all things and her throne was in the moon and 
her husband was Osiris-Ra who was the Father of 
fire which he worshipped; also because a certain 
priestess of the goddess had done him great service 
in the war, words that caused me to wonder. 

So this royal princess came and put on the veil of a 
novice that it might protect her should Ochus take 
the city. But though this veil changed her face and 
form to the eyes of men, her heart it did not change. 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


186 

A little later came Kallikrates from the war in 
the Delta where I learned he had done great things, 
fighting bravely. Indeed he told me himself that 
he had fought the giant Nicostratus in single combat 
and wounded him, though the matter was not 
pressed to an end, since others rushed up and sepa¬ 
rated them. He said that he was a very terrible 
man and that when that huge club of his wavered 
above him, for the first time in his life he felt 
afraid. Notwithstanding he ran in beneath the 
club and stabbed Nicostratus in the shoulder. 

Thus it happened that all being lost in war and 
his service at an end, Kallikrates the captain once 
more became Kallikrates the priest and again put 
on the robes of Isis. Therefore in that temple, 
serving together before its altars were Amenartas, 
Princess of Egypt, and Kallikrates, priest of Isis. 

Often I, Ayesha, seated in my chair of state as 
first of that holy company, save the aged Noot 
alone, watched them from beneath my veil while 
they anointed the statue of the goddess or joined 
in the sacred chants and hymns of praise. As I 
watched I noted this—that always they drew near 
together as though some strength compelled them; 
that always their glances thrown from the corners 
of their eyes, met and turned away and met again, 
and that always, if occasion served, the robe of the 
one brushed the robe of the other, or the hand of the 
one touched the hand of the other. These things I 
noted in silence, wondering what judgment the god¬ 
dess would call down upon this beauteous pair who 
dared thus to violate her sanctuary with their 
earthly passion. Oh! much I wondered, though 
little did I guess what it would be and by whose 
hand it was destined to fall upon them. 

Lastly came Nectanebes himself, his great eyes 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 187 

full of terror and his fat frame wasted with woe 
and sleeplessness. He sought audience of me. 

“O Prophetess,” he said, “all is lost! Ochus 
Artaxerxes has his foot upon my neck. I fly, seek¬ 
ing shelter beneath the wings of Isis, seeking shelter 
from you, O Isis-come-to-earth. Help me, Daugh¬ 
ter divine, for my Daemon has deserted me, or if 
he comes at all it is but to jibber and to mock.” 

“Strange words from Pharaoh,” I answered in 
a voice of scorn, “very strange words from Pharaoh 
who gave this same prophetess to be the woman of a 
vile, Baal-serving king; from Pharaoh who has 
deserted his army, his country, and his gods, and 
now seeks only to save his treasure and his life.” 

“Reproach me not,” he moaned, “Fate has been 
too strong for me, as perchance one day it may be 
too strong for you also. At first all went well. In 
the bygone years I conquered the Persian; I built 
temples to the gods. Then of a sudden Fortune 
hid her face and now—and now!” 

“Aye, O fallen Pharaoh,” I answered, “and why 
did Fortune hide her face? I will tell it, to whom 
it has been revealed. It was because although you 
built temples to the gods, you were false to the gods. 
In secret, following the counsel of that Daemon of 
yours, you made bloody sacrifice to devils, to Baal, 
to Ashtoreth, and to Aphrodite of the Greeks. Nay, 
do not start and deny, for I know all. Lastly, to 
crown your crimes, you gave me, the high-prophetess 
of Isis, to the base, red-handed Tenes, one who of¬ 
fered his own son to idols. What has chanced to 
Tenes who took me, and say, what shall chance to 
him who sold me, O Nectanebes no more a Pha¬ 
raoh?” 

Now I thought that surely he would kill me and 
cared not if he did. For my heart was sore—oh! 




188 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


because of many things my heart was sore. But 
like a beaten cur he only cowered at my feet, pray¬ 
ing me to pardon him, praying me to cease from 
beating him with my tongue, praying me to counsel 
him. I listened and pity took hold of me, who was 
ever tender-minded though a lover of justice and 
a hater of traitors. 

“Hearken,” I said at last. “If Ochus finds you 
here, O fallen Pharaoh, first he will make a mock 
of you and then he will torture you to death. I 
have heard what he will do. He will bring you to 
his judgment seat and lay you bound upon your back 
and grind his sandals upon your face. Then he 
will force you to sacrifice to the fire that he wor¬ 
ships and one by one to spit upon the effigies of the 
gods of Egypt. Lastly, either he will cause the 
holy bull Apis to gore you to death, or he will bind 
you upon the altar in the temple of Ptah and there 
slowly with torments bring you to your end.” 

Now when Nectanebes heard these things, he 
wept and I thought that he would swoon away. 

“Hearken,” I said again, “I will show you a road 
whereby although defeated and disgraced you may 
yet win glory that shall be told of from age to age. 
Summon the people while there is yet time. Go to 
the temple of Ammon, King of the gods of Egypt. 
Stand before the shrine of Ammon and make confes¬ 
sion of your sins in the ears of all. Then, there in 
the sight of all, slay yourself, praying Ammon and 
all the gods to accept your life as an offering and 
to spare Egypt and the people upon whose head 
you, the hated of the gods, have brought all these 
woes. So can you cause the Persian and the world 
to marvel and say that though accursed, still you 
were great, and so perchance you shall turn away 
the wrath of heaven from apostate Egypt.” 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 


189 

A flash of pride shone in his eyes that had been 
empty of light and filled with tears. He lifted his 
head stiffly as though still it felt the weight of the 
great earrings of state, the golden urasus, and the 
double crown. For a moment he looked as once he 
had done at Sais reviewing his triumphant army 
after his first victory over the Persians and drink¬ 
ing in the incense of its shouts, yes, he looked as 
great Thotmes and the proud Rameses might have 
done in their day, a Pharaoh, the king of all the 
world he knew. 

“It would be well to die thus,” he murmured, 
“it would be very well, and then, perhaps, the gods 
I have betrayed would forgive me, the old, old 
gods to whom thirty dynasties of recorded kings 
have bowed the knee, and those who went before 
them for unnumbered generations. Yes, then per¬ 
haps that great company of Pharaohs would not 
turn their backs on me or spit at me when I join 
them at the table of Osiris. But, Prophetess”— 
here his face fell in again and his crab-like eyes pro¬ 
jected and rolled, while his voice sank to a whisper, 
“Prophetess, I dare not.” 

“Why, Nectanebes?” 

“Because—oh! because years ago I struck a bar¬ 
gain with a certain Power of the Under-world, a 
daemon if you will, at least some spirit of evil that 
comes I know not whence and dwells I know not 
where, which became manifest to me. It prom¬ 
ised me glory and success if I would sacrifice to 
it—nay, I will not tell what I sacrificed, but once I 
had a son, yes, like Penes I had a son-” 

Here I, Ayesha, shivered, then motioned to him 
to speak on. 

“This was the bargain, that though to please the 
people I might build temples to the gods, by certain 



190 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


means I must defile them in their shrines. Aye, 
and I did defile them, and when the priest dressed 
me, the Pharaoh, in the trappings of those gods 
according to custom, by thought and word and deed 
I blasphemed them. Yet one divinity remained 
outside the pact because my Daemon warned me that 
she was too strong for him and must not be of¬ 
fended,” and he paused. 

“Was she perchance named Isis?” I asked. 

“Aye, Prophetess, she was named Isis and there¬ 
fore I never polluted her shrine and therefore to 
her alone in my heart I offered prayer. So all 
went well and I gathered great armies and vast 
wealth, I hired Greeks by thousands to fight for me, 
I made alliances with many kings and was sure that 
again I should defeat the Persians and be the master 
of the world. Then came the evil hour of that 
accursed feast at which you, the Mouth of Isis, 
were summoned to prophesy and, moved by some 
madness, you unveiled your beauty before Tenes, 
and I, forgetting whose minister you were, gave 
you to Tenes, thereby outraging Isis in your per¬ 
son.” 

“Did I not warn you, Nectanebes, and did not 
the holy Noot warn you?” 

“Aye, you warned me, but in my need I took the 
risk, or I forgot. From that moment all went ill 
and ruin, like a giant before whom none may stand, 
has hunted me by night and day.” 

“Yes, Nectanebes, and Isis is the name of that 
giant.” 

“I made error upon error,” he went on. “I 
trusted to Tenes and Tenes betrayed me. My 
Daemon counselled me to thrust aside the Grecian 
generals and take command of the armies, and at 
first there was victory, then came defeat. It might 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 191 

have been retrieved, but of a sudden my courage 
failed me. It fell like a temple of which the founda¬ 
tions have been washed out by hidden waters. It 
crashed down; in a moment its proud pylons, its tall 
columns, its massive, honourable walls blazoned 
with the records of glorious deeds, fell to a shape¬ 
less heap hidden in the dust of shame. I am un¬ 
done. I am what you see, a loathsome worm, a 
wounded worm wriggling in the black slime of de¬ 
spair, I who was Pharaoh.” 

Again pity touched me, Ayesha, and I answered, 

“There still remains the road that I have pointed 
out. While we live, however black our record, 
repentance is always possible, since otherwise there 
would be no hope for man the sinner. Moreover, 
repentance, if it be true, brings amendment in its 
train, and this god-born pair struggling upward, 
hand in hand, over cruel rocks, through swamps 
and streams, through brakes and briars, blinded 
with tears and the gross darkness of despair, at 
length see the sweet shape of Forgiveness shining 
before them like a holy dawn such as never gleams 
upon this world. Hearken, therefore, to one who 
speaks not with her own voice, or out of the foolish¬ 
ness of her own weak flesh, but as she is commanded 
of a spirit that is within her. Go to the temple of 
Ammon and there in the presence of the people make 
confession of your sins and fall, a sacrifice, upon 
your sword. Self-murder is a sin, but occasions 
come when to live on is a greater sin, since it is 
better to die for others than to cherish breath that 
poisons them.” 

“To die I There you speak it, Prophetess. I 
say again that I dare not die. When I die I pass 
to the Daemon. This was the pact: that for my 
life he should give me success and glory and that 


192 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

in return after death, I should surrender him my 
soul.” 

“Is it so?” I answered. “Well, the bargain is 
ancient, as old as the world, I think; one also that 
every human being in his degree seals or refuses to 
seal in this way or in that. Still my counsel holds. 
This Daemon of yours has broken his oath, for 
where now are the success and glory, Nectanebes? 
Therefore he cannot claim the fulfilment of your 
own.” 

“Nay, Prophetess,” he answered in a wailing 
voice, “he has not broken it. From the first he 
told me that I must work no harm to Isis the Mo¬ 
ther, since the Queen of Heaven was more power¬ 
ful than all the denizens of hell, and that if once 
it were spoken, her Word of Strength would pierce 
and shrivel him like a red-hot sword and cutting 
his web of spells, would bring his oaths to nothing¬ 
ness and me with them. And now the web is cut, 
and I the painted insect that it meshed, fall from it 
to where the hell-born spider sits in his hole. Proph¬ 
etess, I have seen him with these eyes, I have 
seen his orbs of fire, I have seen his snout and 
fangs like to those of a crocodile, I have seen his 
great hairy arms and the searching talons stretched 
out to grip me, and I tell you that I dare not die 
to be cast into the jaws of the Devourer and burn 
eternally in his belly of flames. Show me how to 
save my life, so that I may continue to look upon 
the sun. Oh! because you are a tender woman 
and charitable, though I have sinned against you, 
show me how to save my life.” 

Now hearing this creature plead with me thus, 
this coward who at the last did not dare go face the 
indignant gods like a man, saying, as a great soul 
should, “I have deeply erred, O ye Gods; I repent, 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 


193 


pardon me of your nobility, or slay my soul and 
make an end,” my pity left me and its place was 
filled with scorn and loathing. 

“Those who would live when the Persian dogs 
are on their heels, must fly fast and far, Necta- 
nebes; they must fly like the deer of the desert on 
whom the hunters close. The road up Nile is empty, 
Nectanebes; as yet there are no Persians there. 
As you would not die, take it and live.” 

“Aye,” he said as the thought went home, “why 
not? I have still a vast treasure; for many years 
I have hoarded against misfortune, for who can 
put all his trust in any Daemon? With it I can buy 
friends in the south; with it I may found another 
empire among the Ethiopians or those of Punt. 
Why should I not fly’Prophetess?” 

“I know not,” I answered, “save that Death is 
always fast and untiring and in the end wears down 
the swiftest runner.” 

This I said darkly for at that moment there came 
into my mind a vision that once I had seen of a 
certain servile slave, aforetime a Pharaoh, that 
same royal slave who grovelled before me; yea, a 
vision of him throttling in a rope while black men 
mocked him. Yet of that I said nothing, only 
added, 

“If it should please you to go south, Necta¬ 
nebes, would it please you also to take with you 
that royal and beautiful lady, Amenartas your 
daughter, aforetime Princess of Egypt?” 

“Nay,” he answered sharply, “since hour by hour 
she scourges me with her tongue because I am 
fallen. Let her abide here under the veil of Isis. 
Yet why do you ask this, Prophetess?” 

“Because of Isis. Because, as I think, this lady 
of the royal blood makes play with a certain priest 


194 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


who is sworn to Isis, and the goddess does not love 
that her vowed servitors should desert her for the 
sake of mortal woman.” 

“What priest?” he asked dully. 

“A Greek who is named Kallikrates.” 

“I know him, Prophetess. A very beauteous man, 
like to their own Apollo; a brave one too who did 
good service yonder in the marshes, fighting the 
giant general whom he wounded. Also I remember 
that in the past he was a captain of my guard be¬ 
fore he became a priest and that there was trouble 
concerning him, though what trouble I forget, save 
that Amenartas pleaded for him. Well, if he has 
offended you, there are still those who do my will. 
Send for him, and if it pleases you, he shall be killed. 
I give you his life. Yes, his blood shall flow at 
your feet. Indeed I will command it at once, since 
you tell me he has shamed the goddess or angered 
you, her priestess,” and he opened his hands to clap 
them, summoning the messengers of death. 

I saw, I thrust my arm between so that they struck 
not upon each other, but upon my soft flesh, making 
no sound. 

“Nay,” I said, “this warrior-priest is a good serv¬ 
ant of the Queen Isis, one, moreover, who fought for 
me, her prophetess, upon the seas. He shall not 
die for so small a matter. Yet I pray you, Necta- 
nebes, take with you the royal princess Amenartas, 
when you fly south with your treasure.” 

“Aye,” he answered wearily, “as it is your desire 
I’ll take her if she will come, though if so there will 
be small rest for me.” 

Then he went, bowing to me humbly, and this was 
my farewell to Nectanebes, the last Pharaoh of 
Egypt. I watched him go and wondered whether I 
had done well in forbidding him to kill Kallikrates. 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 


195 


It came into my mind that the death of this man 
would save me much trouble. Why should he not 
die as others did who had sinned against the god¬ 
dess? An answer rose within me. It was that he 
had sinned, not only against the goddess, but also 
against me—and this by preferring another woman 
before me. 

Was I then so feeble that I could not hold my own 
against another woman should I choose to do so? 
Nay. Yet my trouble was that I did not choose. 

Now I saw the truth. My rebellious flesh de¬ 
sired that which my spirit rejected. My spirit was 
far from this man, yet my flesh would have him near. 
Aye, my flesh said: “Let him be slain rather than 
another should take him,” while my spirit answered, 
“What has he to do with one whose soul is set upon 
things above? Let him go his way, and go you 
yours. Above all, be not stained with his blood.” 

So I let him go, not knowing that it was written 
in the books of Fate that I must be stained with 
his blood, steeped in it to the eyes. Aye, I saved 
him from the sword of Nectanebes and let him go, 
determining to think of him no more. 

Yet as it chanced Fate played me an evil trick 
in this matter. On the morrow, or the next day, I 
sat in the gloom of the outer sanctuary praying to 
the goddess to ease me of my sore heart, for alas! 
strive as I would to hide it, that heart was sore. 
There came a white-robed priest, Kallikrates him¬ 
self, but changed indeed from that glorious Grecian 
warrior who had beat back the boarders on the 
Hapi, or who had fought in single combat with the 
giant Nicostratus. For now the little golden curls 
were shaven from his head and he was pale with the 
thin diet of the fruits of the earth and pure water 
which alone might pass the lips of those who were 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


196 

sworn to Isis, enough indeed for me who touched no 
other food, or such a one as the aged Noot, but 
not for a great-framed man bred to the trade of 
arms. Moreover, his face was troubled as though 
with some struggle of the soul. 

He passed me unseen and going to the statue of 
the goddess, knelt down before it and prayed earn¬ 
estly, perhaps for help and blessing. Rising at 
length, once more he passed me and I saw that his 
gray eyes were full of tears and longed to comfort 
him. Also I saw that still he carried on his hand 
that ring talisman which I had set there upon the 
ship Hapi, that it might perchance defend him from 
the evil influences which desire and compass the 
death of men. 

He went out across the pillared court toward the 
cloister at its end. From this cloister appeared a 
woman, the dark and beauteous Amenartas herself. 
This was easy to see since, I know not why, she had 
put off the veil of Isis and was gloriously attired in 
the robes of a princess—scanty enough I thought 
them, for they left bare much of her loveliness— 
while on her dark and abundant hair shone a golden 
circlet from which rose the royal uraeus, and on her 
arms and bosom sparkled jewels and necklaces. 

They meet by plan, thought I to myself. But it 
was not so, for seeing her, Kallikrates started and 
turned to fly; also he covered his eyes with his hand 
as though to hide her beauty from him. She lifted 
her face like one who pleads, yes, and when he would 
not hearken, caught him by the hand and drew him 
into the shadow of the cloister. 

There they remained a long while, for at this hour 
the place was deserted by all. At length they ap¬ 
peared again on the edge of the shadow and I saw 
that her arms were about him and that her head 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 


197 


rested on his breast. They separated. She van¬ 
ished into the shadows and went her way, while he 
walked to and fro across the court, muttering to him¬ 
self like a man who knows not what he does. 

I came from my place and met him, saying, 

“Surely you are troubled, Priest. Can it be that 
the goddess refuses your prayers? Or is it 
perchance that you weary of them and would still 
play the part of a warrior of warriors as you did on 
the galley Hapi, or but the other day yonder in the 
northern marshes? If so, it is too late, Priest, 
for Egypt is fallen and all is lost. That is, unless, 
like Mentor and many of your race, you would sell 
your sword to Ochus Artaxerxes.” 

“Aye, Prophetess,” he answered, “Egypt is lost 
which, being a Greek, should not trouble me over 
much, and I too am lost, I, the driven of an evil 
fate.” 

“Speak on if it pleases you. Or be silent if it 
pleases you, O Priest. What the prophetess hears, 
she tells only to the Mother.” 

Then I turned and went back into the shadow of 
the shrine where I leaned against a pillar—I re¬ 
member that on it was sculptured the scene of Thoth 
weighing hearts before Osiris. Here I waited, 
wondering whether he would follow me or go his 
ways. 

For a while he stood hesitating, but at length he 
followed me. 

“Prophetess,” he said hoarsely, “I speak under 
the veil of Isis, knowing that such confessions can¬ 
not be revealed. Yet it is hard to speak, since the 
matter has to do with woman, aye, and with your¬ 
self, most holy Prophetess.” 

“In Isis I have no self,” I answered. 

“Prophetess, in bygone years, as I think you know, 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


198 

I learned to love a royal maiden, one set far above 
me, and it seems that she loved me. That passion 
brought a brother’s blood upon my hands, as you 
also know. I fled to the goddess, seeking peace and 
forgiveness. For in me I think there are two selves, 
the self of my body and the self of my soul.” 

“As in most that breathe beneath the sun,” I an¬ 
swered, sighing. 

“I was bred a soldier, one who came from a race 
of soldiers, men of high blood and good to look 
upon, as once I was, though in this garb few would 
guess it.” 

“I have seen you wearing war-harness and can 
guess,” I answered, smiling a little. 

“That soldier-self, Prophetess, was as are others 
of the breed. I drank and I revelled, I bowed the 
knee to Aphrodite, loving women and for an hour 
being loved. I fought, not without honour. Then 
seeking advancement, with my brother I entered the 
service of Pharaoh, and of that story doubtless you 
know the rest.” 

I bowed my head and he went on, 

“I came to Philae, I made confession, I took the 
first vows. At night and alone I was led to the 
sanctuary, there to see the vision of the goddess. 
I saw that vision glowing in the darkened shrine, 
and oh! it was glorious.” 

Here I started and watched him narrowly, won¬ 
dering how much he knew or guessed. 

“Something took hold of me, Prophetess, for 
now I beheld her whom all my soul adored, her with 
whom it would be united. It was as though a mem¬ 
ory came to me from afar, a memory and a promise. 
That Power which took hold of me caused me to 
bend my head as though to kiss the vision and 
thereby pledge my soul to the divine. The vision 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 


199 


also bent its head and our lips met, and lo! hers were 
like to those of mortal woman, yet sweeter far.” 

“The Mother is mistress of all shapes, Priest. 
Yet think not that she forgets the pledge that thus 
it pleased her to accept. From that moment you 
were sworn to her, and doubtless in a day to come, 
in this form or in that, she will claim you—should 
you remain true to her, O Priest.” 

“The years passed,” he went on, “and true I re¬ 
mained. Fate brought me here to Memphis and 
in this temple I saw you, holy Prophetess, and 
learned to worship you from afar, not with the 
body, but with the spirit; since to me you were and 
are what the vulgar call you, Isis-come-to-Earth, and 
the sight of you ever put me in mind, as it does to¬ 
day, of that divine vision whose lips met mine in the 
shrine at Philae. Perchance you never knew it, but 
thus with my spirit I worshipped you.” 

Now I, Ayesha, remained silent, leaning against 
the pillar, for weakness took hold of me who felt as 
though I were about to fall. Yet—and let the 
vengeful gods write this to my honour—yet I made 
him no sign that I was she who had played the part 
of Isis in the sanctuary. 

“It is well,” I said presently, “and doubtless at 
the appointed hour the goddess will thank you. But 
what then is your trouble, Priest? To love a god¬ 
dess with the spirit is no crime.” 

“Aye, Prophetess. But what if he who loves the 
goddess with his spirit and is sworn to her alone for 
ever in a vow of perpetual chastity, should love a 
woman with his flesh and thus betray both heaven 
and his own soul?” 

“Then, Priest,” I answered, speaking very low, “I 
fear that he is one whose hope of forgiveness is 
but small. Yet for those who repent and deny, 


200 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


there is pardon. Only they must deny, they must 
deny while there is still time.” 

“Easy to say and hard to do,” he answered, “at 
least for him who has to deal with one that will not 
be denied; with one who holds his heart in the hol¬ 
low of her hand and crushes it; with one whose eyes 
are like star-beacons to which the wanderer must 
fly; with one whose breath is as roses and whose 
lips are as honey; with one who can drive the desires 
of man as a racer drives his chariot; with one to 
whom oaths also have been sworn, such oaths as the 
youth swears to the maid in the first madness of the 
flesh, decreed by those who made it. Goddesses 
are far away, but woman is near; moreover, among 
men there is a law which even a prophetess may 
understand, which says that oaths vowed with the 
lips may not be broken to benefit the vower’s soul.” 

“These are ancient arguments,” I answered; 
“from age to age they echo from the roofs of the 
temples of Aphrodite and of Ashtoreth, but Isis 
knows them not. The flesh is given to mankind 
that its wearers may learn to scorn and trample it; 
the spirit is given to mankind that its holders may 
learn to rise upon its wings. Woe to those who 
choose the flesh and reject the spirit. Repentance 
is still possible, and after it comes amendment and 
after amendment, forgiveness.” 

He brooded awhile, then said, 

“Prophetess, I repent who above all things de¬ 
sire at the end—that end which again and again I 
have sought in battle wherever it has passed me 
by—to be united with the goddess, shaped like the 
divine one whom I saw in the shrine at Philae. Yes, 
with her and with no other. But how can I amend 
who am a lion in a net, a net woven of woman’s 
hair?” 


THE SHAME OF PHARAOH 


201 


Now I searched him with my eyes and learned 
that although so sore beset, this man spoke nothing 
but the truth. Then I answered, 

“The wise bird flies the snare which it sees spread 
in its sight. To-morrow at the dawn Noot the 
Holy sails north to meet certain ambassadors of 
the Persians and if he can make terms, to ransom 
the temples of Isis from the rage of Ochus. Will 
you go with him, breathing no word of his purpose 
or of yours? If so, perchance thus at last you shall 
find that goddess whose lips met yours at Philae, 
here—or otherwhere.” 

He thought awhile, then muttered, 

“It is hard, very hard, yet I will go; I who would 
satisfy my soul and not my flesh.” 

As he spoke a tall priestess flitted past us, pass¬ 
ing from shadow into shadow, but thinking that she 
was one of those whose duty it was to watch the 
inner shrine at this hour, I took no note of her. 
Nor did Kallikrates, lost in his own thoughts, so 
much as see her. 


CHAPTER XIV 

The Beguiling of Bagoas 

That night Noot my master came to bid farewell 
to me. 

“I go north as I have been commanded—as to 
how the command came, let that be—hoping thereby 
to preserve the temples of our worship and those 
who serve in them. I know not if I shall return, or 
when, and therefore, Daughter of my spirit, it 
grieves me to part from you in these troublous times. 
Yet the command said that you must not accompany 
me but bide here. For your comfort, learn two 
things: first, that no harm shall come to you, as I 
have told you before; and secondly, though that 
hour be far away, even in the flesh we shall meet 
again. Wait then till my word comes to you.” 

I bowed my head in obedience and asked whether 
he was unattended. 

“Nay, Daughter,” he answered. “I take with 
me certain of our fellowship, and among them that 
Greek Kallikrates who has asked leave to accom¬ 
pany me. Being a man of war, as you have seen, he 
may perchance prove of service upon such a mis¬ 
sion. How he learned that I was going I cannot 
say,” he added, looking at me curiously. 

“I told him. Ask no more, Master.” 

“There is little need, I think,” he answered, smil¬ 
ing. “It may please you to learn,” he added bit¬ 
terly, “that the traitor who was Pharaoh, flies up 
Nile to-morrow ere the dawn. Already they lade 


202 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


203 


his ship with the chests of Egypt’s treasure, many 
of them, that should have gone to pay his soldiers 
and strengthen his allies.” 

“May the counting of them comfort him in his 
honourable exile among the Ethiopians! Yet, my 
Master, I think that he will need to count quickly, 
unless it pleased the gods to send a false vision to me 
when I prophesied in the palace yonder, ere this 
shameless Nectanebes gave the Daughter of Isis to 
Tenes the Sidonian.” 

“If so, Ayesha, the gods sent a false vision to 
me also. How will he face them, I wonder, with the 
blood of Egypt on his hands, and with what voice 
will he tell them of their desecrated shrines?” 

“I know not, Master, yet it was written that be¬ 
cause of her apostasies and sins Egypt must fall. 
Can the gods, then, be wroth with their own instru¬ 
ment?” 

Noot pondered awhile, shaking his head, then 
answered, 

“Go ask that question of the Sphinx who sits 
yonder in the sand by the pyramids of the ancient 
kings brooding, as the legend says, over the secrets 
of earth and heaven. Or,” he added slowly, “when 
your own days are done, Ayesha, ask it of your soul. 
Perchance then some god will make clear the riddle 
of the world below, but here on earth it cannot be 
answered, since he who could read it would know 
all things and be himself a god. Sin must come, and 
to sin, sinners are necessary. But to what sin is 
necessary, I do not know, unless it be that from it 
good is born at last. At least the sinner can plead 
that he is but an arrow on the bow of Destiny and 
that the arrow must fly where the shooter aims, even 
though it drinks innocent blood, widows women, and 
makes children fatherless.” 


204 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Mayhap, my Master, it will be answered to this 
arrow that it fashioned itself to deal out death; 
that it grew the wood and forged the barb and 
bound upon its shaft the feathers of desire; which 
wood, had it chosen otherwise, here or elsewhere 
might have flourished—a tree bearing fruits—or as 
seasoned wood, shaped itself to be a staff to lean 
upon or a rod of justice in the hands of kings.” 

“You are wise, Ayesha, nor have I instructed 
you in vain,” he replied with a gentle smile. “Yet I 
repeat, when for the last time you watch the sun 
sink and your soul prepares to follow it over the 
edge of the world, then again propound to it this 
riddle and hear the answer of that invisible Sphinx 
which broods in the heaven above, on the earth be¬ 
low, and in the breast of every child it bears.” 

Thus he spoke and waved his hand, making an 
end of that debate. Nor have I ever forgotten it, 
or his words, and now when sometimes I feel or 
hope soon I, even I, the half-immortal, may 
see the sun sink for the last time, once more, as 
Noot commanded, I ask this riddle of the Sphinx 
that broods within my instructed spirit, and wait its 
answer. For alas and alas! how am I better than 
Nectanebes? He betrayed the gods. Have I not 
betrayed the gods who were nearer to me than ever 
they came to his coarse and gluttonous soul? He 
shed blood to satisfy his rage and lust. Have I 
not shed blood and shall I not perchance shed more 
of it before all is done, when my unconquerable ap¬ 
petites are on me and there is a dear prize that I 
would win? He fled with the treasures of Egypt to 
waste them in the desert sand. Have I not fled 
with the treasures that were given me—with the 
jewelled crowns of my wisdom, with the golden tal¬ 
ents of my heaped-up learning, with the alabaster 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


205 


vessel of my beauty, with the perfumes of my power 
and my eloquence—that drilled, ordered, and 
massed together, and added to the greatest gift of 
all, my length of undying days, might have reformed 
the world and led it into peace? 

Have I, Ayesha, not fled with all these countless 
splendours clasped upon my breast, and buried them 
in the wilderness, as did Nectanebes with Egypt’s 
wealth, before the barbarians slew him? Have I 
not done these things because of a great desire and 
because, robbed of that desire, the world I should 
have guided was gall to my tongue and gravel to my 
teeth? Yet was I to blame? Was not that blind 
man I loved to blame who could not see with his 
darkened, fleshly eyes the glory that lay within his 
grasp and thus stirred my soul to madness? Was 
not the woman to blame also who darkened those 
eyes of his by arts the evil gods had given her? 

Oh! I know not. Perchance they too can put up 
a tale before the Judgment Seat which I shall find 
it hard to answer, for they too are as they were 
made, or as they made themselves, shaping their 
own arrows from the wood of circumstance that 
grew I know not where. And now my desire has 
drawn near to me again; it gleams, a glittering fruit, 
upon the Tree of Life, and I stretch out my hand 
to pluck it. Yes, I stand on tiptoe and almost reach 
it with my finger-tips. Yet what if it prove a cor¬ 
ruption? What if it crumble into dust, rotted by 
the great sun of my spirit, withered at the fingering 
of my undying hand? 

Oh! my lord hunts upon the mountain after the 
fashion of men, and Atene, once named Amenartas, 
sits in her dark beauty in the City of the Plains and, 
as aforetime, plots my ruin and her fleshly theft. 
Who knows the end? But there within my soul 


206 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

broods the Sphinx smiling its immortal smile and 
to it soon or late I must put that question to which 
Noot, the holy and half divine, could give no answer 
—or would not if he could. 

“What of the royal Princess, Amenartas?” I 
asked. “Know, Master, that I grow weary of this 
woman.” 

“Aye, Daughter, these temple courts are wide, 
but not wide enough for both of you. Take com¬ 
fort, she sails to-morrow.” 

“North?” I asked. 

“Nay, south with her father, Nectanebes. Or 
so she tells me, saying that his fortune shall be her 
own and that together they will reign or fall.” 

“It is well,” I answered. 

Then we talked of humble matters that had to do 
with the shrine of the goddess and of the hiding 
away of her treasures lest the Persians should take 
them. When all was finished, Noot rose, blessed 
me, calling on the Powers above to protect me, and 
went his ways in the ship Hapi which he had pur¬ 
chased to bring it to my aid at Sidon, nor did I 
guess that for years I should see him no more. Yet 
I think he knew it well. 

Like a mighty river in its flood the Persian hosts 
poured down oh Memphis. As such a torrent 
sweeps away the village and the humble homestead, 
drowns the cattle, twists out the palm trees by their 
roots, covers the corn with slime, floods cities, 
palaces, and temples, chokes the breath from their 
inhabitants and strews the kind earth with the 
corpses of those that tilled it, so did Ochus and his 
barbarians to Egypt. Rapine and massacre, flames 
of fire and misery marked their path. Men were 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


207 


butchered by the thousand, the aged and women 
who were no longer fair were driven into the desert 
to starve. Yes, it was the sport of those Persians 
to drive them like game to where there was no 
water, and then watch them die of thirst beneath the 
burning sun. Only the young women were spared 
to be concubines or slaves, and the flower of the 
children to be put to vile purposes. The cities 
and the temples were pillaged, their citizens tor¬ 
tured to drag from them the secret of the hiding- 
places of treasure, the priests were forced to sacri¬ 
fice to the god of fire and to spit upon their own or 
die, the priestesses were burned or defiled, or both. 

So pitiful was the case of Egypt that although I 
knew that by her sins and faithlessness she had 
brought these woes upon herself, I who by my 
work at Sidon had become one of the appointed 
ministers of her destruction, my heart wept for her 
and I prayed the avenging gods to hold their hands. 
Also I prayed them to give Ochus to drink of his 
own cup and to make of me the butler who mixed 
his wine. Nor did I pray in vain. 

Thus the red Ochus came at length to Memphis, 
the white-walled city, the ancient, the holy, and 
filled its streets with horror, till they were spread 
thick with dead and one wail of woe went up to 
heaven. Yet he did not burn the place, perchance 
because our prayers availed and the gods relented, 
perchance because he wished to keep it to be the 
seat of his majesty. Only here as elsewhere he 
sacked the temples and wrought sacrilege. 

From the pylon top of the temple of Isis that 
overlooked the courts of that of Ptah and the gilded 
stable of the bull Apis, with my own eyes I saw the 
Persians, for in this business the Greeks would have 
no hand, drag out the sacred beast whom they held 


208 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


to be a god of the Egyptians, though in truth he 
was but the emblem of the god, or rather of the 
generating power that is in Nature, and butcher it 
with jeers and mockery. More, their scullions came 
and cooked the sacred flesh after which, at tables 
spread in the inner court, Ochus and his captains 
ate it, forcing the priests of Ptah to “taste of their 
own god’’ and to drink of the liquor in which it had 
been seethed. They were cowards, those priests, 
or surely they would have found means to mix the 
broth with poison. 

After the feast, when all the revellers were drunk 
with wine, a great jackass was brought and, the 
statue of the god having been thrown out of it, was 
stabled in the sanctuary. 

Such were some of the things that were done in 
Memphis and indeed throughout Egypt, for as Apis 
was served, so was the holy ram of Mendes. More¬ 
over, other things were done too shameful to record. 

Now all this while I sat in the temple of Isis 
awaiting what might befall. I will not say that I 
was unafraid, because I was afraid. Yet within 
me was that proud spirit which forbade me to 
show my fear. Moreover, within me also burned a 
certain fire of faith whereof the light was my guide 
in the darkness of despair. The holy Noot, my 
Master, had told me that I and those with me 
should take no harm, and I would not doubt my 
Master. Moreover, when I prayed at night, a 
voice from heaven speaking in my heart seemed 
to command me to be brave, since there fought for 
me and mine those whom I could not see. 

So there I sat quite alone with none to counsel me 
and none to help me, giving courage as best I could 
to those poor priests and priestesses, my fellow 
servants of the goddess. The worship of the temple 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


209 


went on as before, each morn the statue of the 
Mother was decked and dressed, the perfumes were 
poured, the offerings were made, the processions 
wound round the courts preceded by the singers and 
the shakers of the sistrum, while at night the holy 
hymns were chanted to the stars. 

The Persians came to know of these things and 
gathered at the gates, amazed. 

“Who are these,” they asked, “who have no 
fear?” 

But we answered nothing though death stared us 
in the face. 

The matter reached the ears of Ochus and stirred 
his wonder, so that in the end he came in person to 
visit the temple. I received him in the great hall, 
veiled and seated in a chair of state that was set 
at the foot of a statue of the goddess. With him 
were sundry of his great lords dressed in silks and 
perfumed, also the general Mentor whom I had 
known at Sidon where he played traitor, deserting 
with his Greeks to the Persians. Further there was 
present Bagoas the eunuch and first councillor of the 
King of kings, who commanded his army also; like 
all these unfortunates, a fat, shrill-voiced man with 
a smooth and furtive manner, who waved his long 
hands to and fro when he spoke. 

Now this Bagoas was by birth Egyptian; so I 
had heard, and my first sight of him confirmed the 
tale. Yes, without doubt by birth he was an 
Egyptian of the small-boned, large-eyed, round- 
headed type that had descended from the ancient 
blood, as I knew by the statues of many that I have 
seen taken from the earliest tombs before it be¬ 
came the custom to embalm the dead. I noted this, 
and at once a thought came to me. 

Would an Egyptian desire to see the sanctuary of 


i 210 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Isis and her priests desecrated and destroyed? Per¬ 
chance he did not worship Ptah or Apis, or other 
of the gods, but all born upon the Nile venerated 
Mother Isis, the Queen of Heaven, and bowed to 
her sovereignty. That was a faith which where’er 
they wandered and upon whatever altars they burned 
incense, they never could forget, because through a 
hundred generations it came down to them with 
their blood. Yet who knew? This Bagoas, it was 
said, was a cunning fellow steeped in murder, who 
from his crimes had reaped a rich reward, and such 
an one, looking only to his day of glory, might forget 
even Isis and the wrath to come. 

Ochus, loose-lipped, cruel-faced, and weary-eyed, 
wearing a look of pride that yet was full of haunt¬ 
ing terrors, such as are ever the companions of 
murderers who know that in a day unborn surely 
themselves they will be murdered, stood before me. 
I, rising from my chair, made obeisance to the King 
of kings—and had he but known it, cast the curse 
of Isis at him from beneath my veil. 

“What is this?’’ he asked, speaking in Greek, in 
the thick voice of one who has drunk well at the 
feast, and pointing at me with his sceptre. “Is it 
one of those wrapped bodies that we drag from the 
tombs, such as we used for the cooking of the god 
Apis, broiling him with his own worshippers? Nay, 
for it moves and talks and seems to have the shape 
of woman. Bagoas, strip that veiled thing naked, 
that we may see whether it be a woman, and if so, 
of what favour.” 

Now when I, Ayesha, heard this, at once all my 
courage came back to me, as ever it does when peril 
gets me by the throat. At once I laid my plan, 
which was short and simple. 

If that eunuch so much as advanced to lay a 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


211 


finger on me, I would draw the knife that hung to 
my girdle, the curved, razor-edged Arab knife that 
had been my father’s, and thrusting him aside, I 
would spring past him and strike it through the 
heart of yonder King of kings, sending him to sum 
up his account with Isis. Then if there were time, 
I would serve Bagoas in the same way, and after¬ 
ward, if must be, use the knife upon myself. Better 
thus than that I should be shamed before these 
barbarians. 

I spoke no word and my face was hid, yet I think 
that out of my soul sprang something which warned 
these two of their danger. Or perchance it was 
my guardian spirit that warned them. At the least 
Bagoas went down upon his knees and bowed till 
his forehead touched the ground. 

“O King of kings,” he said, “I pray thee com¬ 
mand not thy slave to do this deed. Yonder lady is 
the prophetess of Isis, Queen of all gods, Queen of 
Heaven and Earth, and to touch her with an un¬ 
hallowed hand is a sacrilege that brings death in 
this world and in that to come everlasting torment.” 

Now Ochus laughed brutally, then turned and 
asked, 

“What do you say, Mentor, who are a Greek and 
know no more of the gods of Egypt than I do? Is 
there any reason why we should not strip this veiled 
priestess and discover what she is like beneath those 
wrappings ?” 

Now Mentor rubbed his brow and answered, 

“Since I am asked, O King of kings, one does 
come into my mind. Do you remember Tenes, King 
of the Sidonians? He took this same prophetess as 
a gift from Nectanebes, and also wished to strip 
her in his fashion. Well, Tenes came to a very 
bad end, and so did Nectanebes who gave her to 


212 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


him, or is in the way of it. Therefore, O King of 
kings, were I in your place, I should advise that she 
remain veiled, who perhaps after all is but an ugly 
old woman. I have known little of Isis, still she 
is a goddess with a great name and perchance it is 
scarcely worth while to risk her wrath to look at 
the wrinkled flesh of an ugly old woman. One 
never knows, O King of kings, and I have seen so 
much of it of late that I come to learn that death, 
with the curse of Heaven thrown in, is a bad busi¬ 
ness.” 

Thus spoke Mentor in his bluff, rambling, soldier 
talk, that yet was so full of Grecian cunning, and 
Ochus, appearing suddenly to grow sober, listened 
to him. 

“I seem to remember,” Ochus said, “that this 
same priestess served me well yonder at Sidon, giv¬ 
ing the Phoenician dog, Tenes, counsel that led him 
down to ruin. So at least the tale runs. There¬ 
fore, not because of the Egyptian goddess whom I 
despise,” and he spat on the statue of Isis, an act 
at which I saw Bagoas shiver, “or for the reasons 
that you fools give, but because by design or chance, 
I know not which, she served me well at Sidon, let 
her continue to wear her veil. I command also that 
this temple, which is beautiful in its fashion, shall 
not be burned or harmed, and that those who serve 
it may continue to dwell there and carry on their 
mad worship as it pleases them, provided that they 
stay within its walls and do not attempt to stir up 
the people by pageantry in the streets. In token 
thereof I stretch out my sceptre,” and he held the 
ivory-headed wand he carried toward me. 

Bagoas whispered to me that I must touch it, so 
I thrust my arm between the folds of my veil and 
did so, though next instant I remembered that it 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


213 


would have been wiser to grasp the wand from be¬ 
neath the veil. 

At once Ochus noted the beauty of that arm and 
exclaimed with a laugh, 

“By the holy fire! yonder hand and wrist are not 
those of an ugly old woman, such as was spoken of 
by you slaves, but rather those of one who is still 
young and fair. Had I seen them but a moment 
gone, surely she should have been stripped. In¬ 
deed-” 

“I have touched the sceptre of the Great King,” 
I broke in coldly. “Once the sceptre has been 
touched the decree of the Great King may not be 
altered.” 

“Wise also,” said Ochus, “for she knows our 
Persian laws. Well, she is right. The sceptre has 
been touched and what has been said cannot be 
changed. See now, all of you who are ignorant, 
how good a shield is wisdom. Come, Mentor, let 
us be going to make sport with those young priest¬ 
esses of Ammon who, not being wise,but only pretty, 
await us in the palace. It will be a merry night. 
Bagoas, bide you here, lest you should be shocked,” 
and he laughed brutally, “also to inquire whether 
this heavenly harlot called Isis decks herself with 
jewels, for if so, as to them I swore no oath. Fare¬ 
well, Priestess. Continue to be wise and to wear a 
veil, because if the rest of you is as shapely as your 
hand, who knows but that some night when wine has 
drowned all promises, I, or others, might cause you 
to be stripped at last.” 

Then he turned and went, followed by his foul 
company. Only Bagoas remained behind as he 
had been bidden. 

When the doors had closed and by the shouts 
from without the walls I knew that the Persians 



214 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

were gone, I said to Bagoas, who was alone with me 
in the place, 

“Tell me, Egyptian, cradled beneath the wings of 
Isis, are you not afraid?” and I turned my head, 
glancing at the vile stain upon the alabaster statue. 

“Aye, Prophetess,” he answered, “I am afraid, 
as much afraid as you were but now.” 

“Fool!” I mocked back at him, “I was not afraid. 
Ere ever a hand had been laid upon me by you, you 
would have been dead, and that king whom you 
serve would have been dead also—ask me not how 
—and by now your souls would be writhing beneath 
the hooks of the Tormentors of the Under-world. 
Have you not heard of the curse of Isis, Eunuch, 
and do you think that your pomp and power can 
protect you from her swift sword? Now, now, 
should I but breathe one prayer to her, she can slay 
you if she wills.” 

He quaked, he fell upon his knees; yes, this mur¬ 
derer of kings fell upon his knees before me, one 
veiled woman in a shrine, imploring me to spare hkn 
and to protect him from the wrath of Heaven. For 
in his soul Bagoas was still Egyptian, and the blood 
of his forefathers who had worshipped Isis for a 
thousand years still ran strong in him. Moreover, 
he feared me, the priestess whose fame he knew, as 
he knew the fate of those who had offended me. 

“Forgiveness! Protection! Methinks these must 
be most dearly bought, Bagoas. Are you one of 
those who have eaten the flesh of Apis and dragged 
the virgins of Ammon from their sanctuary? Are 
you one of those who have stabled an ass in the 
temple of Ptah, have burned the ancient fanes and 
have butchered the priests upon their altars?” 

“Alas! I am,” he said, beating his breast, “but 
not of my own will. What I did I must do, or die.” 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


215 


“It may be so. Make your own peace with those 
gods if you can. I have little to do with them who 
serve the Supreme Mother. But for her what 
atonement?” and again I glanced at the foul stain 
upon the alabaster of the image. 

“That is what I need to be told. What atone¬ 
ment, Prophetess? I will swear that there are no 
jewels here; that the Mother is decked only with 
flowers and with perfumes. I will guard this shrine 
so that never again a Persian sets foot within its 
walls. I will cause any who offend you, Prophetess, 
to die secretly and at once. Is it enough?” 

“Nay, nor by a hundredth part. You would 
spare the ceremonial trappings of the Mother, but 
where is vengeance upon him who defiled her with 
his spittle? You would protect the priestess, but 
where is vengeance upon him who would have strip¬ 
ped her stark to be his sport and that of his 
barbarians? If that is all you have to offer, Bagoas, 
take the Mother’s curse and that of her Oracle, and 
get you down to hell.” Here Bagoas lifted his 
hand as though to protect his head and began to pro¬ 
test, but without heeding him I went on, 

“Hurry not, linger as long as you will upon the 
road. Deck yourself like a woman with broidered 
robes, perfume yourself with scents; set chains about 
your neck and jewels upon your fingers. Pander to 
the lusts you cannot share and take your pay in gold 
and provinces. Poison those you hate and from 
pure children wring out their lives, because these 
stand between you and the fruit of some new phan¬ 
tasy. Glut yourself with the swine’s food of earth, 
swell yourself out with the marsh-gas of power, and 
then, Bagoas, die! die! one year, ten years, fifty 
years hence, and get you down to hell and look upon 
the awful eyes of the goddess you have shamed, of 


2l6 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


her whom your forefathers worshipped from the 
beginning, and wait the coming of her priestess, 
that with every merciless particular she may lay the 
count against you from the pavement of the Judg¬ 
ment Hall.” 

“What, then, shall I do? What shall I do to save 
my soul? Know, Priestess, that I who am maimed 
in my body would save my soul, and that all these 
gauds you count are but gall and ashes to me; for 
having nought else to gain—being robbed of wives 
and children I needs must seek them and thus drug 
the spirit that is within me. Oh! it is something— 
being what I am, that I should feel the necks of all 
these great ones writhing beneath my foot. Yes,” 
here his voice dropped to a whisper, “even that of 
the King of kings himself, who forgets that there 
were other Kings of kings before him. Tell me— 
what must I do?” 

Secretly I drew the curved knife at my girdle; 
secretly and unwincing, unseen of him, I gashed my 
arm—oh! I cut deep, for I can see the mark to-day, 
though this fair flesh of mine once seemed to perish 
in the immortal fire, but to re-arise elsewhere. The 
blood from a severed vein leaped forth and stained 
my veil, a little mark at first which grew and grew, 
till it cried of murder. The man’s eyes fastened 
themselves upon the prodigy, for so he thought it; 
then he asked, 

“Blood! Whose blood?” 

“Perchance that of the wounded goddess. Per¬ 
chance that of a shamed priestess. What does it 
matter, Bagoas?” 

“Blood,” he went on, “for what does the blood 
ask?” 

“Perchance it cries to Heaven for vengeance; per¬ 
chance it demands to be washed away with other 


THE BEGUILING OF BAGOAS 


217 


blood, Bagoas. Who am I that I should interpret 
parables?” 

Now he understood, and struggling from his 
knees, bent forward whispering in my ear. Yes, 
the priceless jewels that hung from his pointed 
golden cap jingled against my ear. 

“I understand,” he said, “and be sure it shall be 
done. But not yet. It cannot be yet. Still I swear 
that it shall be done when the hour is ripe. I hate 
him! I say that I hate him who while he showers 
gifts upon me with his hands, mocks me with his 
tongue, and who, when by my wit I win victories for 
him, jeers at the soldiers who are led by one who 
is neither man nor woman. Yes, I hate him who, 
knowing that I am of Egypt and in my heart a wor¬ 
shipper of the gods of Egypt, forces me to desecrate 
their shrines and to butcher those who serve them. 
Oh! I swear that it shall be done in its season.” 

“By what, O Bagoas?” 

“By this, Prophetess,” and seizing the dripping 
veil he rubbed that which stained it upon his lips and 
brow, “I swear by the blood of Isis, or of her 
Priestess and Oracle in whom Isis is, that I will 
neither rest nor stay till I bring Ochus Artaxerxes 
to his doom. Years may go by, but still I will 
bring him to his doom—at a price.” 

“What price?” I asked. 

“That of absolution, Priestess, which is yours to 

* j > 

give. 

“Aye, it is mine to give or to withhold. Yet I 
give it not until Ochus lies dead, and by your hand. 
Then I call it down from Heaven—not before.” 

“At least protect me till that hour, O Daughter 
of the Queen of Heaven.” 

From the necklace I wore beneath my veil I 
loosed a certain charm of power, the secret symbol 


218 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

of the Queen herself, worked cunningly in jasper, 
and known only to the initiate. This I breathed 
upon and blessed. 

“Take it,” I said, “and wear it on your heart. It 
shall protect you from all ills while your heart is 
true. But if once that heart turns from its pur¬ 
pose; aye! even if it fail to accomplish its purpose, 
then this holy token shall bring all ills upon you, 
here and hereafter, Bagoas. For then upon your 
doomed head shall fall the curse of the goddess 
that even now hangs suspended over it, as in the 
Grecian fable the sword of Damocles hangs by its 
single hair. Take it and be gone, to return no more 
till you come to tell me that Ochus Artaxerxes 
treads that same road upon which he has set so many 
feet.” 

Bagoas took the talisman and pressed it on his 
brow, as though it had been the very signet of the 
King of kings, and hid it away about him. Then 
he prostrated himself before me, who sat upon a 
greater throne, that of the Queen of queens, pros¬ 
trated himself till his forehead touched the ground 
beneath my feet. Then rising, without another 
word, Bagoas withdrew himself with humble obei¬ 
sances till he reached the doors where he vanished 
from my sight. 

When the man had gone I, Ayesha, laughed aloud, 
I who had played a great game and won it. 

Yes, I laughed aloud; then, having purified the 
statue of the goddess and burnt incense before it, 
I went upon my knees and returned my humble 
thanks to that just Heaven of which I was the 
minister. 




CHAPTER XV 
The Plot and the Voice 

The weary years went by. Ochus returned to 
Persia, bearing his spoils with him and leaving one 
Sabaco, a brutal fellow, to rule Egypt and wring 
tribute from her. 

All this while I, Ayesha, sat alone, quite alone, in 
the temple of Isis at Memphis whose walls I never 
left, for the command of Ochus was obeyed and 
whatever happened to those of other gods, the 
shrine of Isis was left inviolate. Here, then, sur¬ 
rounded by a dwindling company of priests and 
priestesses, I remained, as Noot, my Master, had 
commanded me to do, awaiting a word that never 
came, and carrying on the ceremonies of the temple 
in such humble fashion as our poverty allowed. 

What did I through all that slow and heavy time? 
I dreamed, I communed with Heaven above, I 
studied the ancient lore of Egypt and of other lands, 
growing ever wiser and as full of knowledge as a 
new-filled jar with perfume or with wine. Yet of 
what use was this knowledge to me? As it seemed, 
of none. Yet it was not so, since my heart fed on 
it like a bee upon its winter store of honey, and 
without it I should have died, as the bee must die. 
Moreover, now I understand that this space of 
waiting was a preparation for those long centuries 
which afterward I was doomed to pass in the tombs 
of Kor. It was a training and a discipline of the 
soul. 


219 


220 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Thus forgotten of the world I brooded and en¬ 
dured, I who had thought to rule the world. 

So moon added itself to moon, and, still filled with 
a divine patience, I abode within those temple walls 
till the appointed hour, which I knew would dawn 
at last. Of Nectanebes I heard nothing; he had 
vanished away—I doubted not to the doom which 
I had foreseen. Of Amenartas, his daughter, I 
heard nothing, she also had vanished away, as I 
supposed with him. Of Kallikrates, the soldier 
priest, I heard nothing. Doubtless he was dead 
and that beauty of his had turned to evil-odoured 
dust as my own must do, a thought from which I 
shrank. 

Much I wondered why this man alone upon the 
earth should have stirred my soul and awakened 
the longings of my woman’s flesh. I knew not, 
unless it was agreed that when the gates were 
passed I should meet him in a world that lies 
beyond, if such there were. For from the begin¬ 
ning I was sure that it had been laid upon me to 
lift up his spirit to the level of my own, perchance 
because in some far-off star or state I had sinned 
against it and him and dragged them down. 

Indeed is not this the common lot of the great, 
that with toil and tears and bitter disappointment 
they must strive to draw the spirits of others to that 
high peak upon which themselves they stand? And 
amongst all the sins of our vile condition, is there 
one blacker than to cast back some soul that strug¬ 
gles toward the pure and good into the seething 
depths of ill? 

Thus in those days I thought of that lost Kal¬ 
likrates whose lips alone had touched my own. I 
thought, too, with a sad wonderment, how strange it 
was that I to whose feet men had crept by scores, 


THE PLOT AND THE VOICE 


221 


I the most beautiful of women and the most learned, 
had been rejected, or at the least turned from by this 
man, the favourer of another, who although she was 
fair and bold of heart, still shone with a smaller 
light, as does the pale moon when compared with 
the glory of the sun. 

Indeed, now that all was over and done, as I be¬ 
lieved, and that nought remained of these fires of 
folly save a pinch of burnt-out ash, I smiled to my¬ 
self as I remembered them. Yet to tell truth, I 
smiled sadly, who here alone at the dear feast of 
love which, to a woman, means more than all other 
feasts, had been served with the cups of defeat and 
shame by the grinning varlet, Destiny. Yet I was 
well served, for what had I, Wisdom’s Daughter, 
the vowed to eternal glory, to do with such matters 
of our common flesh? 

Oh! I was glad to have done with the gray-eyed 
Kallikrates, who could wield a sword so manly-well 
in battle, and yet, when remorse took hold of him, 
could pray with the best of priests. Now at least 
once more I was the mistress of my own soul with 
leisure to shape it to the likeness of the gods and, 
in those days of holy contemplation, truly its wings 
beat against their bars, struggling to be free. 
Would that they had burst them, but Fate had 
built that cage too strong. 

At length news came to me, for Isis still had eyes 
and ears in Egypt and all that these saw or heard I 
learned, news that Ochus, grown timid or weary in 
his Persian palace, had determined once more to 
drink the waters of the Nile, or perchance to check 
the accounts of his satrap Sabaco whose sum of 
tribute had fallen off of late. 

So he came with all his Eastern pomp and at last 







222 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


took up his abode in the palace of Memphis within 
two bowshots of the temple where I dwelt. The 
people received him with rejoicings; it was pitiful 
to see them decking themselves and the streets with 
flowers, spreading branches of palm for him to tread 
on, and flying banners from the lofty tops of the 
fire-scorched pylons—slaves welcoming their tor¬ 
turer and tyrant and grinning to hide the terror in 
their hearts. He came, and there was festival 
throughout the great town as though Osiris had re¬ 
turned to earth, companied by all the lesser gods. 

Only in the temple of Isis there was none. No 
palm leaves decked its stark and ancient walls, no 
bonfires burned within its courts, and no lanterns 
hung in its window-places. Not thus would I, 
Ayesha, bow the knee to Baal or sacrifice to Moloch, 
though it is true that some of my servants looked 
askance when I forbade it and asked who would 
protect us from the wrath of the King of kings be¬ 
cause of this neglect of his command. 

“The goddess will protect us,” I answered, “or 
if she does not, I will,” and sent them to their 
tasks. 

On the second night after the coming of Ochus, 
Bagoas waited on me and I commanded that he 
should enter, but alone. So his Eastern rabble of 
gorgeous servitors was turned back from the gates 
and he came in unattended, splendid in gold-embroid¬ 
ered silk and jewels. Where he had left me, there 
I received him, seated veiled in the chair of state 
before the alabaster statue of the goddess, at the 
entrance to the outer sanctuary that overlooked the 
great hall. 

“Hail! Bagoas,” I said, “how goes it with you? 
Has that amulet of power which I gave to you pro¬ 
tected you from harm?” 


THE PLOT AND THE VOICE 


223 


“Prophetess,” he answered, bowing, “it has pro¬ 
tected me. It has lifted me up so that now, save 
for the King of kings, my master most august,” he 
added with a sneer in every word, “I am now the 
greatest one in the whole world. I give life, I 
decree death. I lift up, I cast down; satraps and 
councillors crawl about my feet; generals beg my 
favour; gold is showered upon me. Yea, I might 
build my house of gold. There is nought left for 
me to desire beneath the sun.” 

“Except certain things to which, thanks to the 
cruelty of the King of, kings, or those who went 
before him, you cannot attain? For example, chil¬ 
dren to inherit all this glory and all this gold, 
Bagoas, although you live among so many of those 
who might be mothecsJ’ 

He heard, and his face, that I noted had grown 
thinner and more fierce since last I saw him, became 
like to that of the devil. 

“Prophetess,” he hissed, “surely you are one who 
knows how to pour acid into an open wound.” 

“That thereby it may be cleansed, Bagoas.” 

“Yet your words are true,” he went on, unheed¬ 
ing. “All this splendour, all this wealth and 
power I would give, and gladly, to be as my fathers 
were before me, gently bred but humbly owners of 
a patch of land between Thebes and Philae. There 
they sat for a score of generations with their wo¬ 
men and their children. But where, thanks to the 
Persians, are my women and my children? In 
the western cliff yonder there is a sepulchre. In the 
chapel of that sepulchre above the coffins of those 
who lie beneath is an image of him who dug it. He 
lived some fourteen hundred years ago in the days 
of Aahmes, he who won back Egypt from the 
Hyksos kings, the invaders who held it as the Per- 


224 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


sians do to-day. For he was one of the captains of 
the troops of Aahmes who, when he conquered, gave 
him that patch of land in guerdon for his service.” 

Here Bagoas paused like to one overwhelmed by 
unhappy memories, then continued, 

“From age to age, Prophetess, it has been the cus¬ 
tom for the children of the children of this soldier 
upon a certain day to make offerings to that statue, 
wherein, as we hold, dwells the Ka of him whose face 
and form it pictures; to set a golden crown, that of 
Osiris, upon its head, to wind a golden chain about 
its neck; to give it food, to give it flowers. Such is 
the sacred duty, from generation to generation, of 
the descendants of that captain who served Aahmes 
and helped to free Egypt from the barbarian foe. 
Myself I have fulfilled that duty, aye, when Ochus 
the Destroyer first came to Memphis, I travelled up 
Nile and placed the crown upon the head and wound 
the chain about the neck, and offered the flowers and 
the food. But, Prophetess, of this blood I am the 
last, for because of my beauty as a child the Per¬ 
sian seized me and made of me a dry tree, so that 
never again will there be one to make offering in 
the tomb of my forefather, the captain of Aahmes, 
or to read the story of his deeds that fourteen hun¬ 
dred years ago, while yet living, he caused to be 
recorded upon his funeral tablet.” 

I heard and laughed. 

“A common tale,” I said, “a very common tale 
in Egypt to-day, the Egypt of the Persians, as doubt¬ 
less it was long ago in the Egypt of the Hyksos. 
But this ancestor of yours was a man who smote, or 
helped to smite, the Hyksos and lived to write his 
glorious deeds on stone to be an example to those 
who came after him. Well, the story is finished, is 
it not? Indeed I wonder that the glorious Bagoas, 


THE PLOT AND THE VOICE 


225 


slave of the Persian, Bagoas with his pomp and 
pleasures, thinks fit to waste time upon the tale of a 
forgotten warrior who in his hour struck for free¬ 
dom. What are the flowers and the humble scents 
which for more than a thousand years have been of¬ 
fered to the spirit of that warrior, but now can 
never be offered again since there are none of his 
blood left to bring them, compared to the priceless 
balms, the jewels and the gold, that daily are poured 
upon the feet of Bagoas, the Chief Eunuch and 
Counsellor of the King of kings, who, did he know 
of those holy ones that sleep in the tomb of the race 
of Bagoas, doubtless would drag them out and cause 
Bagoas, the last of its blood, to fire them, that he 
might see a merry blaze? That would be a good 
sport for the King of kings, to force the great Ba¬ 
goas to burn his ancestors and on their bones to 
cook a royal meal, as he forced the priests of Ptah 
to broil Apis for his feast.” 

The mighty Bagoas heard and understood me, as 
I could see well, for at every word he winced like a 
high-bred steed beneath the whip. 

“Cease,” he said hoarsely, “cease! I can bear 
no more. Why do you rub sand into my eyes, 
Prophetess?” 

“To clear away their rheum that they may see the 
better, Bagoas. But let us be done with the tale of 
that honourable, long-lost ancestor of yours to 
whose spirit no more offerings will be made, and tell 
me of the wonders of the great estate of you in 
whom runs his blood, the last drops of it, that soon 
will be sucked up in the sands of Death. Seal that 
sepulchre, Bagaos, but first set it in another writ¬ 
ing, graven on a tablet of emerald or gold, telling 
how he who hallowed it was by the gods given the 
glory of being the far forefather of Bagoas, Chief 




226 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Eunuch of the King of kings, Ochus, who burned 
the shrines of that forefather’s gods.” 

“Cease, cease!” he moaned. “The hour is at 
hand.” 

“What hour, Bagoas?” 

“The hour of vengeance which I swore to Isis.” 

“Does the Egyptian worshipper of the Persian 
holy Fire remember his vows to Isis? Be plain, 
Bagoas.” 

“Hearken, Prophetess. During all these years 
I have been seeking opportunity. Now of a sudden 
I see it to my hand. A thought came to me whilst 
you talked of the captain of Aahmes to whom no 
more of his blood can make offerings.” 

“Speak it, then, Bagoas.” 

“Prophetess, the King of kings is wrath with you, 
because alone of all the great places in Memphis, on 
the temple of Isis no welcoming banners hang to 
greet him at his royal coming and because no priest 
or priestess of Isis spread flowers before his con¬ 
quering feet. So wrath is he that, were it not for 
his oath, which he fears to break, he would pull this 
sanctuary stone from stone, slaughter its priests, and 
give its priestesses to the soldiers.” 

“Is it so?” I asked indifferently. 

“Aye, Prophetess. But by that oath you are 
saved, for ever I keep it before his mind and warn 
him of the fate of those who do violence to the 
Queen of Heaven. Only this morning I did this 
while he stood staring at these unbannered walls 
and muttered vengeance.” 

“And what said he then, Bagoas?” 

“He laughed and answered that he would do the 
goddess not violence, but honour, thus. On the 
third night from this, the night of full moon, he will 
make a great feast in the inner court of this temple. 


THE PLOT AND THE VOICE 227 

At that feast the King of kings and his women will 
sit upon a platform laid over the coffins of the royal¬ 
ties of Egypt dragged from their sepulchres, so 
that its kings and queens may be beneath his feet. 
This platform will be supported by the statues of 
the gods of Egypt which once they worshipped. Tn 
front of it will burn the holy Fire of Persia and that 
fire will be fed with the mortal remnants of priests 
and priestesses of those Egyptian gods. Ochus the 
king will be clad in the robes of Osiris, and at the 
end of the feast from behind her consecrated statue, 
that before which we sit, the goddess herself, 
dressed in the robes of Isis and wearing the holy em¬ 
blems upon her head, will appear veiled, led by 
priestesses or by royal Persian women. You will 
be that goddess, Prophetess.” 

“And then?” I asked. 

“Then you will be brought up on to the platform 
and there this new Osiris will unveil you, embracing 
you as his wife in welcome before all that company. 
This he will do to make a mock of you because he 
believes you to be an ancient woman who goes veiled 
to hide her baldness and her wrinkles, for so the 
rumour runs among the Persians.” 

Now when I, Ayesha, heard these horrible words 
and my heart understood the height and depth of 
the sacrilege which this mad king would dare and 
all that it might mean to me, I trembled; yes, the 
bones seemed to melt within me so that almost I fell 
from the throne whereon I sat. Yet gathering up 
my strength I asked, 

“Is this all, Bagoas?” 

“Nay. At that feast, Prophetess, I myself as 
Vizier and the head of the world under him, must 
serve Ochus as his cup-bearer. While the priests 
of Osiris and the priestesses of Isis sing the ancient 


228 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


chants of the awakening of . Osiris from the tomb 
and of his reunion with Isis the Wife Divine, it will 
be my part to hand the jewelled goblet filled with 
the holy wine to Osiris-Ochus, King of Heaven and 
Earth. From it he will drink the marriage draught, 
and having drunk, will pour the dregs of the goblet 
upon your feet, or for aught I know will cast them 
in your face. Nay, I forgot. First the Persian 
women of the royal household will strip the cover¬ 
ings from you that Osiris may see his long-lost bride 
and the company may have sport, jeering at her 
withered age.” 

“And if she should prove to remain unwithered, 
if even she should chance to be passing fair, what 
then, Bagoas?” 

“Then perchance, Prophetess, it is in the mind of 
Ochus to add Isis to the number of his queens, think¬ 
ing thus to gain the favour of the Egyptians, if not 
of their gods. Oh! Prophetess, you are very wise, 
as all know, yet once your foot slipped—or rather 
your hand slipped, when in bygone days you 
stretched it out to touch the sceptre of the King 
of kings. Ochus has often spoken of the beauty of 
that hand and arm, and of how, more than all 
things, he desired to see the face above them and 
the form of which they are a part. Perchance, 
Prophetess, that is why he plans all this mummery.” 

“And if I refuse to act this play, what then, 
Bagoas?” 

“ Then since the command is lawful and designed 
to honour the goddess, the Great King’s oath is at 
an end. Then the temple of Isis will be sacked and 
burned like others, then her priests will be murdered 
unless they make offerings to the holy Fire, and her 
priestesses be enslaved or find a home in the soldiers’ 
tents or Persian households.” 


THE PLOT AND THE VOICE 


229 


“Bagoas,” I said, rising and standing over him, 
“know that the Curse of Isis hovers about your 
head. Show me a path out of this trouble or you 
die—not to-morrow or next year, but at once. How, 
it matters not, still you die; and for the rest, are the 
Sidonians the only ones who can fire their temples 
and perish in them?” 

He cringed before me after the fashion of his 
unhappy kind, then answered, 

“I waited for such words, Prophetess, and had I 
not been prepared against them, never would I have 
entered these gates alone. Did I not tell you that 
at this feast I shall be the King’s cup-bearer? 
Now,” he went on in a whisper, “I add that his own 
physician, who is in my pay, will mix the marriage 
wine, that his life is in the hollow of my hand; that 
the guards and captains are my servants; that the 
great lords are sworn to me, and that the hour for 
which I have waited through long years has come 
at last. Lady, you are not the only one who desires 
vengeance upon Ochus.” 

“Fine words,” I said. “But how know I that 
they will be fulfilled? In Egypt Bagoas is called 
the King’s Liar.” 

“I swear it by Isis, and if I fail you, may the De- 
vourer take my soul.” 

“And I, who am her Mouth and Oracle, swear 
by Isis that if you fail me I will take your blood. 
Aye, though I die, a thousand will live on to avenge 
me, and the dagger or the shaft of one of them shall 
reach your heart at last. Or if they miss their aim 
then the goddess herself will smite.” 

“I know it, Prophetess, and I will not fail. After 
drinking of that cup sleep will fall upon the King 
of kings; yes, the new Osiris will return to his tomb 
and sleep sound, but not in the arms of Isis.” 


230 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

Then for a while there was silence between us, till 
at length I motioned to him to begone. 

The night of the feast came and all was prepared. 
I did not trust Bagoas and therefore I made a plan, 
a splendid and terrible plan. I determined to offer 
all those feasters, yes, the King of kings with his 
women, his generals, his chamberlains, his council¬ 
lors, and his company, as one vast sacrifice to the 
outraged gods of Egypt, and with them if need 
were, myself and my servants, to guide them upon 
the road to hell. 

Beneath that hall of the temple which Ochus had 
appointed for the feast was a vast vault for the 
storage of oil and fuel against times of want or tu¬ 
mult. This vault, as it chanced, was full to the roof, 
since in those troublous days I never knew from 
moon to moon when the place might be besieged. 
Also in it was much prepared papyrus with many 
written rolls that for centuries had been hidden 
there, great weight of bitumen such as the embalm- 
ers use, a stack of coffins prepared by the living to 
receive their bodies at the end; and lastly hundreds 
of bundles of dried reeds that served to strew the 
courts. What more was needed, save to open the 
air shafts to the hall above that the flames might 
find full play, and to set in the vault one who could 
be trusted with a lamp of which the light was hid¬ 
den, commanded at a certain signal to cast it among 
the oil-soaked reeds and fly? 

As it chanced such an instrument was to my hand, 
an old, fierce-hearted woman in whom ran royal 
blood, that for hard on seventy years had served as 
priestess of this temple. 

That very night 1 summoned the priests and 
priestesses who remained and in the sanctuary under 


THE PLOT AND THE VOICE 


231 


the wings of Isis, I told them all: told them how I 
purposed to sweep this human dirt of Persians with 
the red besom of destruction out of the company of 
the living over the edge of the world into the Aven¬ 
ger’s everlasting jaws. 

This band of the faithful hearkened and bowed 
their cowled heads. Then the first of them, an old 
priest, asked, 

“Is it decreed that we must eat fire with these 
swine? If so, we are ready.” 

“Nay,” I answered, “the secret passage that runs 
from the back of the sanctuary of the ruined tem¬ 
ple of Osiris will be unbarred, that passage by which 
in the old days the holy effigy of Osiris was brought 
at the great festival of the Resurrection to be laid 
upon the breast of Isis. By this passage at the first 
sign of fire, you must flee, as I will if I may. But if I 
come not you will know that the goddess has called 
me. At the water-steps of the temple of Osiris 
boats will be waiting manned by brothers of our 
faith. In the darkness and the tumult, those boats 
will pass down Nile to the secret shrine that is 
called Isis-among-the-Reeds, where once, the legend 
tells, the goddess found the heart of Osiris hidden 
there by Typhon, the shrine upon the isle that none 
dare visit, no, not even the Persians, because it is 
guarded by the ghosts of the dead, or by spirits sent 
from the Under-world fashioned like flames of fire. 
Thither fly and there lie hid until the word of Isis 
comes to you, as come it will.” 

Again they bowed their cowled heads in the 
gloomy sanctuary lit by a single lamp. Then the 
old priest said, 

“Great is the deed that we shall do, and worthy. 
Surely the song of it shall echo through all the 
courts of Heaven and the gods themselves shall 


232 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


crown our brows with splendour. Yet ere it is de¬ 
creed, O Prophetess inspired, let us seek a sign from 
the Queen immortal that such is her command.” 

“Aye,” I answered, “let us seek a sign.” 

So there in the half darkness we chanted the mys¬ 
tic ritual, hand in hand before the goddess we 
chanted it, bowing and swaying, weeping and pray¬ 
ing, demanding that a sign be given to us who were 
prepared to die that her splendour might shine forth 
as a star. 

Yet no sign came. 

“O Oracle inspired,” said the old priest, “it is 
not enough. Yet in your heart are locked the un¬ 
utterable Words, the Words of Power, the Words 
of the Opening of the Mouth Divine, that may not 
be spoken save at the last extreme. Are not these 
words known to you, the Oracle inspired?” 

“They are known to me,” I answered. “From 
Noot I had them under the Seven Oaths when I 
was ordained prophetess; yea, under the Seven 
Curses if those words should be used unworthily, 
the seven dreadful curses, deer-footed, snake¬ 
headed, lion-maned with red fire, that shall hunt the 
betrayer’s soul from star to star, till the black vault 
of space falls in and buries Time. Kneel now and 
bow your heads and stop your ears till they be 
spoken. Then open your ears and hearken.” 

They knelt in a double row and I, I the Oracle, 
clothed in the might of my Queen, I dared to draw 
near to her holy effigy gleaming white above us in 
the darkness of the shrine. Yes, this I dared, not 
knowing what would chance. I took the jewelled 
sistrum of my office; I laid it upon the lips of the 
goddess, I shook it till it chimed before her face, 
I clasped her feet and kissed them. 

Then I rose and into her ear I whispered the 


THE PLOT AND THE VOICE 


233 


dreadful Words of Power, which even now, after so 
many ages, I dare not so much as shape in the halls 
of memory. I whispered them and returning to 
my company of kneeling worshippers, I motioned to 
them to unstop their ears and folding my arms upon 
my breast, I waited with downcast eyes. 

Presently there was a stir in that sanctuary as of 
beating wings; a cold air blew upon us; then a voice 
spoke, the very voice of Noot my Master, Noot, the 
holy priest of priests. Said the voice: 

“Fulfil! It is decreed. Fulfil and fear not! n 

“Ye have heard,” I said. 

“We have heard,” they answered. 

“Whose voice did ye hear?” I asked. 

“The voice of Noot, the holy priest of priests 
who has gone from us,” they answered. 

“Is it enough?” I asked. 

“It is enough,” they answered. 

Then I departed rejoicing, who knew by this sign 
that Noot, who spoke with his human voice, still 
lived upon the earth, and that through him it had 
pleased Heaven to utter its decree. 


CHAPTER XVI 

The Feast of the King of Kings 

It was the night of the great feast. All day long 
artficers by scores had toiled in the court of the 
temple. Adown its length tables had been set up 
and by them couches and benches upon which hun¬ 
dreds of the feasters w r ould lie or sit according to 
their degree. Near to the head of the court a plat¬ 
form had been built, of which the foundation beams 
were supported by the statues of gods dragged from 
a score of temples where they had stood in solemn 
peace for ages. Yes, there were Ptah, Ammon, 
Osiris, Mut, Khonsu, Hathor, Maat, Thoth, Ra, 
Horus, and the rest, bearing on their sacred brows 
and headdresses the eating-table of a heathen horde. 
But they bore more than this, since around and be¬ 
tween them and the platform upon which stood this 
table were laid the coffins of long-dead kings or 
queens, and other great ones, torn, it was said, from 
the pyramids or their surrounding tombs. Dark 
with the dust of ages there they lay, some of them 
uncovered, so as to reveal the grim shapes that slept 
within. 

Above these again was placed the wide platform 
carpeted with purple cloth of Tyre, and on it stood 
the board and gilded furniture of the feast. Here, 
too, was a golden throne at the back of which was a 
peacock fan of jewels, while to its front was set a 
table fashioned of black wood inlaid with ivory, and 

234 


THE FEAST OF THE KING OF KINGS 235 

around it other smaller thrones and tables. These 
were the seats of the King of kings and some of his 
favoured women. 

Nor was this all, for in an outer court but within 
the pylon gates, cooks and scullions had built fires 
whereon they dressed meats, and butlers set out their 
store of wines. Never before within the memory 
of man had so strange and rich a feast been seen 
in Egypt as that which was now preparing in the 
courts of Isis, to defile which with the smell of flesh 
was a sacrilege and the eating of it there an abom¬ 
ination. 

When the sun had turned toward the west came 
Bagoas with other eunuchs and chamberlains, and 
being admitted to the inner courts, summoned our 
company and issued his commands as to the cere¬ 
monial that we must keep. We hearkened meekly, 
saying that we were the slaves of the King of kings, 
we and our goddess together, and in all things 
would obey his words. 

Then they went away, but as he passed me, affect¬ 
ing to stumble, he whispered in my ear, 

“Be not afraid, Prophetess. All is well and the 
end shall be good.” 

“I am not afraid, Eunuch,” I answered, “who 
know that all is well and that the end will be good.” 

The night fell; great flares of light set upon 
stands of bronze were lit adown the hall, and with 
them countless lamps placed at intervals along the 
tables. The feasters gathered; they came by scores 
and hundreds; Persian lords in their rich robes, 
generals and captains in their armour, merchants of 
many lands, Egyptian apostates, and I know not who 
besides, men, all of them, whom it pleased the King 
of kings to honour. They were marshalled in their 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


236 

appointed places by the stewards and butlers, and 
there waited in silence, or speaking only in low 
voices. 

From behind the curtains of the outer sanctuary 
I and my company watched it all. These were clad 
in their festal garments of white, garlanded with 
flowers. But I, according to command, wore the 
glorious robes of Isis beneath my veil, and on my 
head the vulture cap of Isis, the golden Uraeus, the 
earrings and the crescent of the moon. Moreover, 
about my bosom were hung the sacred necklaces and 
the other jewelled emblems of the goddess, while 
in my hands I held the sistrum and the Cross of 
Life. 

Trumpets blew announcing the advent of the 
King of kings. Up the long hall he marched, clad 
in the mummy wrappings of Osiris, somewhat wid¬ 
ened at the feet so that he might walk in them, wear¬ 
ing on his head the tall feathered crown and hold¬ 
ing in his hands the Crook of Dominion and the 
Scourge of Rme. His chamberlains and great offi¬ 
cers led him by a stairway to the platform that was 
built above the bodies of ancient kings, where was 
set a tiny altar upon which burned the Holy Persian 
Fire. There for a while he stood in pride, waving 
the scourge with which he flogged the world, while 
all that company fell upon their faces and adored 
him as a god, after which they lay still as corpses in 
the grave. 

It was strange to see them lying on their faces 
like dead men, who indeed soon were to be dead, 
every one of them, and adoring this human image, 
this dressed-up doll, fashioned in their own likeness, 
to be the plaything of the gods and about to be 
broken by them and cast upon the rubbish heap of 
time. 


THE FEAST OF THE KING OF KINGS 23 7 

I, Ayesha, watching through the veil and alive 
with that spirit which in the hour of great events 
comes to such as I am, thought it very strange; so 
strange that I could have laughed. For there in 
this mime, this puppet king upon the platform, with 
the tame tiger, Bagoas, that was about to tear out 
his throat, crouching at his feet, I saw the very type 
of all grandeur that is built of clay and not of spirit, 
since assuredly there is one grandeur of the earth 
and another of the spirit. Whether by the poison 
of Bagoas or by the fire of Isis, yonder man who 
stood triumphing over the mighty monarchs that lay 
coffined beneath his feet, like a wind-filled toad upon 
a consecrated altar, was about to die and then what 
of his triumph and what of his pomp? 

His cup of blood was full, and when the blast of 
doom overturned it into the sands of Death, what 
tongues would it take, I wondered, in which to urge 
a million accusations against his trembling soul? 
Lastly, what mocking devil had persuaded him to 
don the robes of Osiris, that in them he might do in¬ 
sult to Isis who, whate’er she may not be, at least 
under her royal name of Nature is the mighty vas¬ 
sal of the Most High, forgetting that Osiris is the 
god of Death and that Isis-Nature ever avenges her¬ 
self upon those who violate her laws? Little won¬ 
der then that I who laughed but seldom in those 
days did so in my heart, while my eyes took their 
fill of the tinselled panoply of this lost madman. 

Ochus-Osiris waved his sceptre, and the seeming 
dead who lay around him, as they had been drilled 
to do by those who planned this play, came to life 
in a grim mockery of ghosts called from the grave. 
They rose up and each, according to his degree, took 
his place at this Table of Osiris brought to earth. 

The feast went on; they ate much; they drank 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


238 

more, till their brains were bemused with wine and 
scarce could they stand upon their feet. At length the 
climax came; the coping-stone was set upon this black 
pyramid of mortal sin against the spirit of Divinity. 

Ochus rose, waving the Crook of Dominion. 

“Osiris is risen again in Egypt!” he cried. “Let 
his wife, the divine Isis, be brought forth that he 
may drink with her the cup of marriage and embrace 
her as her husband.” 

Thereon that ribald company shouted, 

“Yea, the god Osiris is risen again in Egypt. 
Bring out Queen Isis. Bring her out, that we may 
see her drink with him and be kissed!” 

Guards summoned us. We came forth from the 
curtained sanctuary, white-robed in simple state. 
Singing the ancient hymn of Reunion to the music 
of harps and of shaken sistra, our company came 
forth into the great hall, I at the head of them. 
We walked into the hall, a solemn troop at whom 
the drunken feasters forgot to mock; indeed some 
of them bowed their heads as though in awe. We 
came to the dais that was supported by the statues 
of the gods of Egypt and platformed with her an¬ 
cient royalties, and here we halted. Guards led me 
up a stairway so that I stood upon the platform, fac¬ 
ing Ochus-Osiris. He spoke, saying, mockingly, 

“Hail! Queen of Heaven. Behold Osiris re¬ 
arisen on the Nile has found you at last. Unveil, 
Queen of Heaven, that he may look upon your 
glory, for as goddesses do not grow old, doubtless 
you are glorious.” 

At these words of insult the company broke into 
coarse laughter. I waited till it had died away, 
then answered, 

“O King wrapped in the robes of a greater king, 
yea, in the robes of Death, have you not heard that 


THE FEAST OF THE KING OF KINGS 239 

it is very dangerous to draw the veil of Isis, that 
none, indeed, has drawn it and lived? You think 
me but a woman, but know that here in the shrine of 
Isis, aye, here in her holy House which you dese¬ 
crate with revellings and with the flesh of butchered 
beasts, I, her Prophetess and Oracle, am the very 
goddess and clothed with her divinity. I pray you, 
therefore, think again ere you bid me to draw my 
veil.” 

For a moment he seemed to grow afraid, as did 
that company, for they were silent. Then rage took 
hold of him who was full of wine and pride. 

“What?” he shouted. “Am I, the King of the 
world, to be defied and threatened by an old hag 
who calls herself a priestess, or a goddess, or both? 
Woman, once before I listened to your prayer and 
left you wrapped in that rag, but now when I come 
both as your king and as your god, why I claim the 
privilege of the god. Off with that veil or I will 
bid my women strip you stark.” 

Again the silence fell, and for a little while I 
looked about me. I looked at the feasters illum¬ 
ined by the strong flares of the essence of bitumen; 
I looked at the blue heaven above in which the great 
moon floated royally; I turned and looked at the 
white statue of the goddess showing faint and pure 
between the curtains in the darkness of the distant 
shrine beyond. Then I lifted my head and prayed 
aloud, saying, 

“O Thou, that from thy moon-throne watchest 
all things passing on the earth, O Thou, great Spirit 
of the world whom men name Isis, Thou that canst 
spare; Thou that canst avenge; Thou that knowest 
both life and death; Thou that rulest hearts and 
destinies; Thou to whose equal sight the king is as 
the slave, since both kings and slaves are but dust 


240 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


beneath thine immortal feet, hear me, thy priestess 
and thine Oracle. Thou knowest my strait and 
that of these thy servants over whom I rule 
beneath thee. Protect me and them, if thou 
wilt, or if thou wilt not, then take us to thyself. I 
ask nothing of thee; I seek not to turn the chariot 
wheels of Fate; judge thou of my cause who with 
thy judgment am content. In thine hands hang the 
scales of doom and the great worlds are thy weights. 
Who then am I that I should seek to press upon thy 
balances? Judge now between me, O Mother 
Isis, and this death-attired king who mocks thee, the 
Queen of Heaven, in mocking me, thy servitor on 
earth.” 

“Have done, woman!” mocked Ochus. “Cease 
your whimperings to a goddess sitting in the moon, 
for she is far away from you—and unveil. Bagoas, 
give me the Marriage Cup, that I may drink to this 
new wife of mine, who thinks herself divine.” 

Bagoas beckoned and a dark-faced, black-bearded 
man w T hom I knew for the king’s physician came 
forward with a golden goblet on which were vile 
carvings of the loves of satyrs. This he tasted, or 
affected to taste, with much ceremony, and as he did 
so, though save I none noted it, let fall the poison 
into the wine. Then with humble steps, lifting the 
cup thrice, lowering it again thrice, doubtless to mix 
the venom with the wine, he came to the Presence 
and kneeling, presented the goblet to his master, 
the King of kings, the King of the world. 

“Now,” said the drink-besotted Ochus as he 
grasped the goblet, “now, Priestess, will you unveil 
or must I call the women?” 

“It is not needful,” I answered. “Yet, O most 
glorious monarch, yet, O conqueror of all things, 
first I would add one word. Even a king so great 


THE FEAST OF THE KING OF KINGS 241 

that he dares to clothe himself in the raiment of the 
Lord of Death perchance may err from time to 
time. Thus, Mighty One, do you err when you say 
that Isis is far from me, for Isis is here and I am 
Isis” 

Then at a word two priestesses sprang to my side 
and loosed me of my veil. It fell to the ground 
and there I stood before them clad in all the splen¬ 
did pomp of Isis, beautiful as Isis, with the terrible 
eyes of Isis, and holding in my hands the emblems of 
Isis and the sceptre with which Isis ruled the world. 

They saw, and from that crowded hall there went 
up a sigh of wonder—or was it of fear? Ochus 
saw also; his eyes started, his mouth opened. 

“By the holy Fire! 1 ’ he muttered, “here is one 
worth wedding, be she goddess or woman.” 

“Then drink the cup, O Ochus-Osiris, and take 
her, be she goddess or woman,” I answered, point¬ 
ing at him with the Cross of Life. 

He drank, he drank deep, and forgetting to offer 
the wine to me, loosed the goblet from his hand so 
that it fell upon the little altar where burned the 
holy Fire, extinguishing it, and thence rolled from 
the platform to the ground. I glanced at Bagoas 
and read in his eyes such a look as I had never seen 
upon the face of man. Oh! it was cruel, that look 
—cruel yet triumphant, this cold stare of the victim 
who had become a conqueror. All hell was in that 
look. 

The feasters murmured at the omen of the death 
of the Fire, but that draught seemed to sober Ochus, 
who took no heed of it. The wildness left his eyes; 
they grew cunning as those of a merchant. Mer¬ 
chant-like he appraised my loveliness seen through 
the gauzy wrappings such as are used to deck the 
painted effigy of the goddess. 


242 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“I look before I take,” he said. “ ’Twas good to 
win Egypt; it will be better to win you, O Divine 
in flesh if not in spirit. Now I understand why in 
the past you would not suffer me to draw your 
veil.” 

Thus he spoke slowly, savouring the words upon 
his tongue as his greedy eyes savoured my beauty. 
Then he rose to pass the small altar and advance 
upon me. 

In that fierce moment of time I considered all. 
It came into my mind that Bagoas had tricked me; 
that his cup lacked poison, or at least that the plan 
had failed, and that if I was to be saved it must be 
by myself. Yet I paused ere I did that which 
would cause the death of hundreds. 

“Stay!” I said to him. “Lay no finger on me 
lest you shall call the curse of Isis upon your head.” 

“Nay,” he answered, “it is the blessing of Isis 
that I am about to call upon my lips, O most Beauti¬ 
ful, O Loveliness incarnate!” 

He came on. He was past the marble altar. 
His fierce, bestial face glared into mine and he 
gripped me; his hot arm was about me, he dragged 
me to his embrace, while all the beasts of his com¬ 
pany shouted in vile joy. 

I let fall the sistrum that I held. The moment 
of mercy had gone by. That shout had sealed the 
doom of all those dogs and satyrs. It was the 
signal! 

By the arts known to us instantly the command 
was passed on to her who waited below. Instantly 
this fi erce-souled destroyer was at her work with 
lamp and torch. Never did lover run so swiftly to 
her lover's side as she did from pile to pile, firing 
the oil, firing the reeds. 

Now that brute-king had me! He pressed his 


THE FEAST OF THE KING OF KINGS 243 

hot kisses upon my breast, upon my lips. I stood 
still. I struggled not. I stood like the statue of 
the goddess. This cold calm of mine seemed to 
frighten him. 

“Are you woman?” he asked, hesitating. 

“Nay,” I hissed back, “I am Isis. Woe to them 
who lay hands upon Isis!” 

He unloosed. He stood staring at me, and as he 
stared I saw his face change. 

“What is in your eyes?” he asked. “All the 
devils in Egypt are looking out of your eyes.” 

“Nay,” I answered, “all the devils of hell look 
out of my eyes. Isis commands the devils of hell 
and unchains them, O death-clothed king.” 

“What do you mean? What do you mean?” he 
asked. 

“That you will learn presently—in hell. There¬ 
fore bid farewell to the world, O Corpse of a king!” 

He glowered at me. He swayed to and fro. 
Then suddenly down he went like one pierced 
through the heart with an arrow. There he lay upon 
his back across the altar staring up at the moon. 

“Isis is in the moon!” he cried. “She threatens 
me from the moon. Persians, be afraid of Isis the 
Moon-dweller. Bagoas! Physician! Physician! 
Bagoas! protect me from Isis. She is wringing my 
heart with her hands. Witch! Witch! loose my 
heart from your hands.” 

Thus he wailed in a horrible voice and these were 
his last words, for having spoken them he lifted his 
head, glaring about him with a twisted mouth, then 
let it fall heavily, rolled to the platform, and was 
still. 

Bagoas and the physician ran to him. 

“The Curse of Isis has fallen upon the King of 
kings,” cried Bagoas. 


244 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“He who bestrode the world is dead, smitten by 
Isis of the Egyptians!” cried the physician. 

From the royal women and all that company there 
went up a wail of: 

“Ochus is dead! Artaxerxes is dead! The King 
of kings is dead!” 

Bagoas and the physician, helped by the wailing 
women of Ochus, lifted the body. They carried it 
from the platform, they bore it down the hall, they 
vanished with it into the darkness, and presently in 
the utter silence I heard the gates of the courts and 
the outer gates of the pylon clang behind them 
and the clashing of the bolts as they were shot by 
the guards of the gates. 

Still for awhile the silence held, for all were like 
dead men with terror. Then a voice cried, 

“The witch has killed the king with her kiss! 
Slay her. Tear her to pieces. Slay her and her 
company!” 

The spell-bound mob began to stir; I heard 
swords rattling in their scabbards. They rose like 
waves on a quiet sea, and like a wave began to flow 
toward the platform on which I now stood alone. 
I stooped down, lifted the sistrum from the plat¬ 
form, and held it toward them. 

“Be warned!” I cried. “Stay still lest the Curse 
of Isis fall on you also.” 

“Witch! Witch! Witch!” they screamed, hesitat¬ 
ing awhile, and again swayed forward. 

I waved my arm, and as though in answer to it 
from the grating of stone beyond the platform sud¬ 
denly arose dense smoke followed by bursts of 
flame. I waved it a second time, and from the 
gratings at the end of the hall arose smoke fol¬ 
lowed by bursts of flame. They looked, they saw, 
they understood. 


THE FEAST OF THE KING OF KINGS 245 

“The Curse of Isis 1” they screamed. “The 
Curse of Isis is upon us! Fire rises from hell.” 

“Nay,” I answered, “fire falls from Heaven sent 
by the outraged gods!” 

Now between me and them flared a fence of 
flame which the boldest dared not face. They 
paused, one hurled a sword at me which passed 
above my head. Then they turned, flying for the 
gateways of the hall, and there were met by an¬ 
other fence of flame. Some of the boldest leapt 
through it only to find that the gates were shut and 
that the terror-stricken guards had fled. They 
rushed back, burning, yea, their silken robes and 
their oil-anointed hair turned them, yet living, into 
torches. Now they took another counsel. They 
dragged the tables together, piling them each on 
each and striving thus to climb the walls of the hall. 
This, perhaps, they might have done, some of them, 
had not every man pulled down his neighbour, so 
that they fell in tumbled heaps upon the stone floor¬ 
ing where the life was trampled out of them. 

I turned and behind the veil of smoke fled from 
the platform, none seeing me, back behind the hang¬ 
ings that hid the outer sanctuary, where all the com¬ 
pany of Isis was gathered, save only that fierce old 
priestess who yet with lamp and torch lit fire 
upon fire in the vaults beneath and, at last, 
doubtless, passed to Heaven on the chariot wheels 
of flame. 

Here my servants stripped off my sacred trap¬ 
pings, wrapping me in dark garments and a hooded 
cloak. While they did so I looked back. The hall 
was filled with spouts of fire. The platform upon 
which Ochus had feasted was burning and the royal 
dead beneath blazed merrily. Only the stone gods 
by whom it was upborne still stared silent and dread= 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


246 

ful through the vesture of smoke and fire, emblems 
of vengeance and eternal doom. 

I could see no more but above the roaring flames 
I heard the mad screams of those trapped feasters 
who had come to see their king make a mock of Isis 
and her priestess, and these were terrible to hear. 
Then the floor gave way and down they went into 
the furnace pit beneath. Yes, they who worshipped 
fire were devoured of their own god. 

Thus did I, Ayesha, Child-of-Wisdom, daughter 
of Yarab according to the flesh, work the vengeance 
of Heaven upon the Persians and their King of 
kings. By fire I wrought it, I whose path ever 
was and ever shall be marked by fire; I, Ayesha, 
who grew undying in the breath of fire and who, 
in the caverns of Kor, clasped it to my breast and 
was wedded to its secret Soul. 


CHAPTER XVII 

The Flight and the Summons 

We gained the hidden passage, bearing with us the 
treasures and the holy books of the Sanctuary that 
to this day lie buried in the caves of Kor. We came 
safely to the ruined temple of Osiris that the Per¬ 
sians had destroyed, and through it to the water- 
gate where the boats waited. None noting us, we 
embarked upon the boats and glided away down 
Nile. If any saw us pass, they thought us country¬ 
folk, or perchance Egyptians who fled from the 
Persians in Memphis. But I think that none did 
see us, since all eyes were bent upon the flaming 
temple of Isis and all ears were filled with the ru¬ 
mours that flew from mouth to mouth, telling that 
the goddess had descended in fire and made an end 
of the tyrant Ochus, his generals, his councillors, 
and his court. 

Thus did I bid farewell to white-walled Memphis 
which never again my eyes should see, though often 
my spirit shows it to me in visions of the night, and 
often I seem to hear the last wild agony of those 
upon whom I executed the decree of Heaven. 

What happened afterward? Of that I know 
little, though rumours which Philo brought in the 
later years told me that Bagoas and the physician 
let fall or flung away the corpse of Ochus. These 
rumours said that it was found devoured by cats and 
jackals, so that had it not been for the rent Osiris 

247 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


248 

wrappings, none would have known that here lay 
all that was left of the King of kings who desolated 
Egypt and made her as a widow. They told also that 
Bagoas set Arses, the son of Ochus, upon the throne 
of Persia, and later poisoned him and all his chil¬ 
dren save one. Then it seems that he made Darius 
king, and this Darius Codomannus, knowing that 
Bagoas would poison him also, smote the first, forc¬ 
ing him to drink of the drugged cup that he had 
given to so many. 

Such, it appears, was the end of Bagoas whom I 
used as the artist uses a tool, harnessing him to the 
chariot of my wrath and, like the Erinnyes of the 
Greeks, making of him a sword wherewith I, or 
Heaven working through me, stabbed Persia to the 
heart, as through Tenes I had stabbed Sidon and 
through Sidon, Egypt. For such were the dooms 
that I was commanded to bring about. Thus 
Bagoas walked the road down which, aforetime, he 
drove his victims, and save for an evil name that 
echoes through the ages, this was the end of him and 
all his crimes. 

Ere dawn our company came to the great reed- 
bed and through it by channels known only to our 
pilots, reached the secret shrine named Isis-among- 
the-Reeds, where all had been made ready for our 
coming by the priests who watched there. Worn 
out, as well I might be, I laid me down and slept in 
a tiny cell, fearing no harm, since I knew surely that 
none would come to me or to those with me. Why 
I knew it I cannot say, but it was so. I knew fur¬ 
ther that I had done with Egypt; my work there was 
finished; henceforth we were divorced. 

All that day I slept and through most of the night 
which followed, lulled by the whispering of the tall, 
surrounding reeds. I suppose that it must have 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 249 

been during those night hours that I dreamed a 
strange dream. In it I stood upon the desert, a 
vast waste of sand bordered in the distance by the 
Nile. I was alone in this desert save for the sun 
that sank in the west and the moon that rose in the 
east, and between them, shone upon by sun and 
moon, by Ra and by Isis, crouched a mighty Sphinx 
of stone with a woman’s breasts and head, which 
Sphinx I knew was Egypt. There she sat, im¬ 
memorial, unchanging, stern, beautiful, and stared 
with brooding eyes toward the east whence morn 
by morn arose the sun. 

Appeared before her, one by one, each adorned 
with its own sacred emblems, all the gods of Egypt, 
a grim, fantastic crowd such as a brain distraught 
might fashion in its madness. Beast-headed and 
human-shaped, human-headed and beast-shaped; 
dogs and hawks, crocodiles and owls; swamp-birds, 
bulls, rams, and swollen-bellied dwarfs, came this 
rout of gods and bowed before the stern and beau¬ 
teous Sphinx that wore a woman’s head. 

The Sphinx opened its mouth and spoke. 

“What would ye of me who have sheltered you 
for long?” it asked. 

One shaped like a man but from whose shoulders 
rose the beaked head of an ibis crowned with a 
crescent moon on which stood a feather, and hold¬ 
ing in his hand the palette of a scribe; he whom the 
Egyptians named Thoth the Measurer, the Re¬ 
corder, stood forward and made answer. 

“We would bid thee farewell, Mother Egypt, 
our shelterer for thousands upon thousands of 
years. Out of thy mud we were created, into thy 
mud we return again.” 

“Is it so?” answered the Sphinx. “Well, what 
of it? Your short day is done. Yet tell me, who 


250 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

gave you these monstrous shapes and who named 
you gods?” 

“The priests gave them to us and the priests 
named us gods,” answered the ibis-headed man. 
“Now the priests are slain and we perish with the 
priests, because we are but gods made of thy mud, 
O Egypt.” 

“Then get you gone back into the mud, ye gods 
of mud. But first tell me, where is my Spirit that 
in the beginning, when the world was young, I sent 
forth that it might be a Soul divine to rule Egypt 
and the world?” 

“We know not,” answered Thoth the Recorder. 
“Ask it of the priests who made us. Perchance 
they have hidden it away. Farewell, O Egypt, 
farewell, O Sphinx, farewell, farewell!” 

“Farewell!” echoed all that monstrous throng 
and then faded miserably away. 

There was silence and with it solitude; the Sphinx 
stared at Nothingness and Nothingness stared at 
the Sphinx, and I, the watcher, watched. At length 
out of the nothingness arose something, and its 
shape was the shape of woman. It stood before 
the Sphinx and said, 

“Behold me! I am thy lost spirit, but thou, O 
Egypt, didst not create me, for I created thee by a 
divine command. I am she whom men know as Isis 
here upon the Nile, but whom all the world, and all 
the worlds beyond the world know as Nature, 
the visible garment of the Almighty God. Gone are 
those phantasies, man-nurtured and priest-con¬ 
ceived. Yet I remain and thou remainest, aye, 
and though we be called by many names in the in¬ 
finite days to come as we have been called in the 
infinite days that are gone, ever shall we remain 
until this little floating globe of earth ceases from 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 251 

its journeyings and melts back into that from which 
it came, the infinite arms of the infinite God.” 

Then the human-headed Sphinx rose from the 
rock whereon it had lain from the beginning. It 
reared its giant bulk, it went upon its knees and 
bowed to the woman-shape, the tiny woman-shape 
that was Isis, that was Nature, that was the Execu¬ 
trix of God. Thrice it bowed—and vanished. 

The Spirit was left and I, Ayesha, was left. The 
Spirit turned and looked on me and lo! to my sight 
it was shaped as I am shaped. Sadly it looked, with 
grieving eyes, but never a word it spoke. 

“Mother. My mother,” I called, “speak to me, 
my mother!” 

But never a word it answered, only it pointed to 
the skies and suddenly was gone. Then I, Ayesha, I 
stood alone in the immeasurable desert looking at 
the setting sun, looking at the rising moon, looking 
at the evening star that shone between, and wept 
and wept and wept because of my loneliness. For 
what company is there for a human soul in sun 
and moon and evening star when the spirit that 
formed it and them has departed, leaving them to 
gaze one upon the other, voiceless in the void? 

Such was my dream upon which I have pondered 
from year to year, asking an answer to its riddle 
from sun and moon and evening star, and finding 
none. Only the spirit can interpret its own prob¬ 
lems, and to me, because of my sins, because, like 
the gods of Egypt I am fashioned of mud that veils 
my soul’s dim lamp within, as yet that spirit is 
choked and dumb. Still, one day the Nile of death 
that I have dammed from me for so long will burst 
its barriers and wash away the mud. Then the 
lamp will shine out again; then the spirit will 


252 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


come and refresh it with its holy oil and breathe 
upon it with its breath, and in that breath perchance 
I shall understand my dream and learn the answer 
to its riddle. 

Indeed already Time lays its foundations bare, 
for does not Holly tell me that for nigh upon two 
thousand years her gods have been dead in Egypt? 
For awhile they lingered on beneath the Greeks 
and Romans, changed masks of what once they 
were; for awhile their effigies were still painted 
upon the coffins of her people. Then the star of a 
new Faith rose, a bright and holy star, and in its 
beams they withered and crumbled into dust. Only 
the old Sphinx remains staring at the Nile and may¬ 
hap in the silence of the night holds commune with 
Isis the Mother, telling of dead kings and wars 
forgot, for being Nature’s self, Isis alone can never 
die although from age to age her vestments change. 

Yea, when I, Ayesha, fired the hall and burned 
those foul Persian feasters, with them I slew the 
gods of Egypt, and their sad and solemn statues 
stared a farewell to me through that wavering wall 
of flame. Nay, it was not I who did it, nor was 
it I who brought its doom on Sidon and his death on 
Ochus, but Destiny that used me as its sword, as I 
used Bagoas, me, Fate’s doom-driven daughter. 

When I awoke it was still dark save for the light 
of the sinking moon, and in the night-wind, with a 
faint continual voice, the tall reeds whispered their 
prayer to Heaven. For though we know it not, all 
that has life must pray or die. From the great star 
rushing through space on its eternal journey to the 
humblest flower nestling beneath a stone, every¬ 
thing must pray, for prayer is the blood of the 
spirit that is in them and if that blood freezes, then 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 253 

they are resolved to matter that cannot grow and, 
knowing neither hope nor fear, is lost in the blind 
gulf of darkness. 

I hearkened to those whispering reeds telling of 
the mysteries below to the mysteries above, and on 
the wings of their sweet petitions, sent up my own to 
Heaven. 

For in truth I was troubled and knew not what 
to do. Here I could not bide for long, since surely, 
soon or late the Persians would seek me out and 
surely Bagoas, to cover his own crimes, would slay 
me as the destroyer of his king. This did not 
affright me who was weary of the world with all its 
horrors and in a mood to walk the gate of death, 
hoping that beyond it I might find a better. But 
there were those with me, my fellow servants to 
whom I had sworn safety and who put their faith 
in me, as though in truth I were the goddess herself, 
and if I died, certainly they would die also. 

Therefore I must save them if I could. Yet how? 
I had no ship in which to flee from Egypt, and if it 
were to hand, whither should I fly now that all the 
earth was Persian? Oh! that Noot were here to 
counsel me. That he lived somewhere I was sure, 
since had not his voice spoken in the shrine and this 
by no priestly trick, for when I put up that prayer 
for guidance, I knew not how it would be answered 
or by whom, or if indeed it would but fall upon the 
deaf ears of the winds, and like a dead leaf, in their 
breath be blown away and lost. 

Yes, he still lived, yet how could I know that it 
was here he lived? Mayhap he spoke from far be¬ 
yond this stormy air of earth. Even so he who 
had counselled me once might counsel me again. 

“O whispering reeds,” I cried in my heart, “with 
all your million tongues, pray east and west and 


254 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


north and south, that Ayesha in her need may be 
helped of the wisdom of the holy Noot.” 

Yes, thus I prayed like a little, bewildered child 
who sees God in a cloud and thinks that flowers 
open for her joy and that the great Pleiades look 
down from the sky and love her. Yes, toil and 
grief and terror had made me like a little child. 

Well, it is to such, rather than to the proud and 
learned, the rulers of the earth and the challengers 
of Heaven, that answers oftenest come and with 
them knowledge of the truth. At least to me, 
emptied of strength and wisdom and in that weak 
hour, forgetful even of my beauty, my great deeds, 
and the lore that I had won, swiftly there came an 
answer. 

Of a sudden, at the first blush of dawn upon 
night’s pale cheek, a priestess stood by my pallet, 

“Awake, O Isis-come-to-Earth,” she said, bowing. 
‘A man stands without who would have speech with 
you. He came here in a boat and when he was 
challenged answered with all the signs, aye, and 
even spoke the secret words known to few, those 
words that open the sanctuary’s door. The priests 
questioned him of his business. He answered that 
he could tell it only to her who bore the jewelled 
sistrum, to her who veiled her head with cloud like 
a mountain-top, to that Prophetess who in all 
shrines is known as Child-of-Wisdom, but who 
among men was named Ayesha, Daughter of 
,Yarab.” 

Doubting me of this man and scenting treachery, 
I caused that instructed priestess to repeat one by 
one the mystical words that he had spoken. At 
last she uttered a certain syllable of which even 
she did not know the meaning. But I knew it and 
knew also who had its custody. 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 255 

Filled with a great hope I rose and wrapped my¬ 
self in a dark garment. 

“Lead me to this man,” I said, '“but first make 
sure that three priests stand round him with drawn 
swords.” 

She went and presently returned again, saying that 
the man awaited me in the fore-court of the little 
temple, guarded as I had bidden. To this court I 
followed her. It was but a small place, like to a 
large room. I entered it from the sanctuary to 
the west. Through the eastern door poured the 
first rays of the rising sun, that struck upon a man 
who stood waiting in the centre of the court, guarded 
by three priests with lifted swords. 

I could not see his face, though perhaps even be¬ 
neath my cowl he could see mine upon which those 
rays also struck. At least I saw him start, then 
fall to his knees, raising his hand in salute with a 
quick and curious motion. It was enough. I knew 
him at once. This man was Philo and no other. 
With a word I bade the armed priests leave us and 
the priestess who had accompanied me bide in the 
shadow. Then I went forward, saying, 

“Rise, Philo, for whom I have looked so long 
that I began to think you were no more to be found 
beneath the sun. Whence come you, Philo, and 
for what purpose?” 

“O Prophetess, O adored, O Lady divine,” he 
answered in a voice of joy, “I, your slave in the 
flesh and your fellow servant in the goddess, greet 
you whom never I hoped to see again after all that 
has passed in Egypt. Suffer that I may kiss your 
hand and thereby learn that you are still a woman 
and not a ghost.” 

I stretched out my hand and reverently he touched 
it with his lips. 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


256 

“Now tell your tale, friend Philo,” I said. 
“Whence come you, most welcome Philo, and by 
what magic do you find me here?” 

“I come from far to the south, Prophetess, out of 
an ancient land of which you shall learn afterward. 
For three moons have I struggled over difficult seas 
driven by contrary winds, to reach the mouths of 
Nile and to find you, if still you lived.” 

“And who sent you, friend Philo?” 

“A certain Master who is known to both of us, 
he sent me.” 

“Is he perchance named Noot?” I asked in a 
low voice, “and if so, did you sail hither over mortal 
seas, or over those through which Ra travels in 
the Under-world?” 

This I said wondering, for it came into my mind 
that he who knelt before me might perchance be 
not a man but a shadow sent to summon me to the 
halls of Osiris.” 

“Mortal seas I sailed; those of the Under-world 
still await my prow, O Wisdom’s Daughter. Here 
is the proof of it,” and drawing a roll from his 
bosom, with it he touched his brow in token of 
reverence, then gave it to me. 

I broke the seals, I opened that roll, and by the 
light of the rising sun I read. It ran thus: 

“From Noot, the son of Noot, the high-priest, 
the guardian of Secrets, to Ayesha, Child of Isis, 
Wisdom’s Daughter, the Instructed, the Oracle: 
Thus saith Noot. 

“I live, I do not sleep in my eternal house. My 
spirit shows me that which passes upon the Nile. I 
know that you have obeyed my commands which I 
gave to you before we parted in the bygone years, 
O my begotten in the goddess. I know that you 
have waited patiently in faith through many tribu- 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 257 

lations. I know also that this writing will find you 
in an hour of great peril when for the second time 
you have escaped from fire, leaving behind you the 
ashes of your foes. Come to me now and at once, 
Philo the beloved brother and the consecrated 
sistrum that is the sceptre of your office being 
your guides. Philo shall lead you; through all 
dangers the sistrum shall be your shield. I write 
no more. 

“Obey, Mouth of Isis, bringing with you those 
that are left to the service of the goddess. Read 
the seal of Noot, high-priest and prophet, and tarry 
not.” 

I read and hid away the roll. Then I asked, 

“Upon what wings do we fly to Noot who is so 
far from us, friend Philo?” 

“Upon those of a ship that is known to you, 
Prophetess, the ship named Hapi, upon which al¬ 
ready you have passed many perils. She lies yonder 
fully manned in the outer fringe of this sea of 
reeds.” 

“How did you find those reeds, and how did you 
know that I was hidden among them?” I asked 
curiously. 

“Noot marked them on a chart he gave me and 
told me that in them, where, as the story runs, Isis 
discovered the heart of Osiris, there I should find 
the child of Isis. Prophetess, inquire no more.” 

I heard and returned thanks in my heart. Truly 
what I whispered to the whispering reeds had been 
borne to the ears of Heaven. 

The trireme Hapi, with her mast struck, lay 
hidden in shallow water midst beds of tall bulrushes 
and papyrus plants, into which Philo had worked 
her by the moonlight. All that day we laboured 
lading her with the Treasures of the temple of Isis 


258 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

and those of the secret shrine, which were many, for 
during these times of trouble much gold and price¬ 
less furnishing of precious metals had been hidden 
here among the reeds. Also with them were some 
of the most ancient and hallowed statues of the god¬ 
dess fashioned in gold and ivory and alabaster stone. 

All of these together with my own great wealth 
of jewels and other gear were borne in boats to 
the Hapi and stored within her hold where they 
lay hid beneath much merchandise that Philo had 
purchased at the ports of Nile. Hither he had 
come disguised as a merchant from the south, hav¬ 
ing his ship laden with the produce of Punt such 
as ivory and rare woods. These he sold at the 
ports where he gathered tidings of all that passed 
in Egypt, and having purchased other goods in 
place of them, passed unsuspected up the Nile to the 
secret Isle of Reeds where Noot had bidden him 
make inquiry for me at the time of full moon in this 
very month. It was not difficult for him to find 
this isle as it seemed that, being an initiate of Isis, 
once in bygone days he had visited it on the business 
of the goddess. 

While we were at this work we saw boats full of 
Persian soldiers pass down Nile, as though they 
searched for someone, and toward the evening saw 
them return up Nile again, heading for Memphis. 
I knew for whom they sought and noted that they 
did so very idly, since all believed that I and my 
company had perished with the Persians in the burn¬ 
ing temple. 

At nightfall I gathered the priests and priestesses, 
in all they were, thirty and three in number, and 
spoke to them, saying, 

“Here in Egypt we who are the servants of the 
goddess can stay no more. The gods of Khem are 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 259 

fallen, their shrines are desolate, and death by 
sword and fire, or by the torturer’s hooks, is the lot 
of those that worship them. Noot, the high-priest, 
the Master, the Prophet, summons us from afar, 
bidding us bear the worship of the goddess to new 
lands that lie I know not where. Philo, our brother, 
is his messenger and here is the message written in 
this roll; read it if you will. I, the Oracle and 
Prophetess, obey the summons; this very night I 
sail setting my course for seas unknown, and trust¬ 
ing to the goddess to be my guide, mayhap into the 
gates of death. Noot the high-priest bids you to 
accompany me. Yet I give you choice. Bide on 
here if you will and live out your lives disguised as 
scribes or peasants, for in the temples you can no 
longer find a home. Mayhap thus you shall escape 
the vengeance of the Persians. Or come with me if 
you will, knowing that I promise you nothing. Let 
each speak as the Spirit directs the heart within.” 

They consulted together; then one by one they 
said that it was their mind to be of my company 
since they held it better to die with me and 
pass pure to the arms of the goddess rather than 
to live on defiled, or perchance to perish miserably 
beneath the stripes of the executioners, having first 
been forced to do sacrifice to the Persian god of 
Fire. So man by man and woman by woman they 
swore the oath that might not be broken by those 
who would escape the jaws of the Devourer, and in 
token kissed the holy sistrum that I held to the lips 
of each. Then for the last time we celebrated the 
rites of Isis in a temple of Isis on the Nile and with 
weeping and with woe sang the psalm of farewell, 
such as is chanted over the dead of our fellowship. 

This done we went to the boats and were rowed 
on board the Hapi. 


26 o 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


When the moon was bright the mariners, fierce, 
foreign men most of them, such as I had never seen 
before, who wore great earrings of gold and had 
rings thrust through their noses, poled the vessel 
out from among the reeds into the deep waters of 
the Nile. Here they hoisted the mast and set the 
sails which presently filled before the strong wind 
blowing from the upper land, and bore us forward 
swiftly. 

Passing out of the Nile by a little-used mouth, as 
we could do now that the river was in flood, we 
entered the canal that joins the seas, which canal the 
old Pharaohs dug and the Persians had caused to be 
cleared of drifting sand. By it, though not easily, 
for in places it was both narrow and shallow, at 
length we came safely into the Red Sea and bade 
farewell to Egypt. None hindered us on this 
journey, and, having crossed the lakes, only once did 
we stay at a little unravaged town at the far mouth 
of the canal, to buy bread, fresh fish, and meat 
wherewith to stock our ship. 

This town we found to be full of rumours, for 
the news of the death of Ochus had reached it and 
many tales were told of the manner of his end. 
That which these coast-dwellers favoured was that 
Set the god had appeared in person at a feast, and 
seizing Ochus, had set him upon a winged Apis, that 
very Apis bull which he had sacrificed and eaten, 
and borne him away to hell. At this fable I smiled, 
though indeed in it there was a seed of truth, since 
without doubt, if there be a hell, the blood-soaked 
Ochus was its inhabitant that day. 

Now of all that journey I, who grow weary of 
writing, will omit the story. Most marvellously it 
prospered, so much so that I think, unseen by us, 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 261 

spirits from the Under-world must have stood upon 
our prow. From day to day a strong and steady 
wind blowing from the north drove us forward 
swiftly. No storm smote us nor did we strike upon 
any rock, and when we made land for water, either 
it was uninhabited, or the folk who dwelt there, 
strange barbarous folk, were friendly. 

So the time went by creeping from moon to moon 
and ever we sailed on southward. Nor was the 
time unhappy, since there I sat in that same cabin 
which had been mine when Pharaoh gave me as a 
bribe to Tenes and that therefore was familiar to 
me, having something of the aspect of a home. In¬ 
deed with a certain taste of acid pleasure, from 
time to time I recalled all that had happened to 
me upon this ship and in that very cabin. For in¬ 
stance where I had wrung the writing from the 
passion-maddened Tenes; where he had stood and 
knelt; where his shadow had struck upon the cedar 
walls. There, too, in the wood was an arrow hole, 
which arrow should have drunk my life. 

Then in the waist of the ship was the place where 
the boarders from the Holy Fire had won aboard, 
whence Kallikrates, the Grecian captain turned 
heirophant, had beat them back so gallantly. Aft, 
also, was the shelter where I had visited him and 
dressed his wounds that were almost to the death. 
Here I placed upon his finger the charmed scarab 
ring of Khaemuas, the Magician, whereon were cut 
symbols with a secret meaning, though they seemed 
to read only as “Son of Ra,” that this ring might 
raise him from the darkness of death, as Osiris rose 
and as Ra rises from the Under-world. 

Here, too, it was that I heard him mistake me for 
another woman and to that woman give his thanks, 
thus opening my eyes to all the folly of my heart. 


262 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Years ago these things had chanced to me, and 
now when they were dead things, I say that I could 
dream of them with that soft grief which is like to 
the tenderness of eve after the promise of the morn¬ 
ing and the burning noonday heat have become but 
memories buried beneath the dust of time. Yet it 
is true that now and again those memories renewed 
their life, especially within the shrines of sleep. 

Oh! it was all so long ago. Had not Philo’s 
beard, that I remembered brown and rich, since then 
grown gray, and were not his curling locks thinned 
upon his temples? And I who then was young, had 
I not grown to middle-age, though still I remained 
more lovely than any other woman in the world, 
and was not my soul burdened with much learning, 
and had not the sorrows I had passed pierced it 
with a thousand spears? Now, too, doubtless Kal- 
likrates was dead, and all the dreams to which he 
alone among men had given birth within me had 
gone wherever dreams may go, perchance to be lost 
in the vast unknown, or perchance after the change 
called death, there to be found again? 

Yet I, I wandered forward on my path, Fate- 
driven as of old, to what end I knew not and did 
not greatly care to know. For now it seemed my 
part was played; the world and its stirrings were 
left behind me and the last shreds of my web must 
be spun of poor stuff in petty, unknown places, where 
I should patter prayers beneath an alien sky till it 
pleased death to enfold me in its wings and bear 
me to the depths of its enormous habitations. 

Well, so let it be, since, as I have said, I was 
weary of the world; its toils, its bloody issues, and 
its perpetual strivings to grasp that which man or 
woman may not hold—except in dreams. 

With Philo I talked much, but always of the past; 


THE FLIGHT AND THE SUMMONS 263 

of those things which we had experienced together, 
or of other events of his earlier, adventurous life, or 
of my own. A most pleasant companion was this 
Philo, of a shrewd wit and some learning also, a 
brave citizen of the world who had seen much, and 
yet one who revered the gods, whatever the gods 
might be, and had thoughts of that which lies beyond 
the world, whatever this may be. But of the pres¬ 
ent or of what had happened to him since he sailed 
away with Noot, my Master, when Ochus invaded 
Egypt, and least of all of the future and whither 
we went or why, I did not talk at all. 

For when these matters came to my lips, as they 
did even before we were clear of Nile, Philo made 
a certain sign to me which being interpreted meant 
that he was under an oath, a very solemn oath, not 
to speak of any of them, which oath I respected, as 
indeed I was bound to do. Therefore I asked no 
more and sailed on careless as a child that recks not 
of what is to come and from whom death is still 
very far away. 


CHAPTER XVIII 
The Tale of Philo 

Once more it was a night of full moon. As we 
had done for many days we were sailing before that 
steady wind along the coast of Libya, having this 
upon our right hand, and upon our left, at a distance, 
a line of rocky reef upon which breakers fell con¬ 
tinually. 

It was a very splendid moon that turned the sea 
to silver and lit up the palm-grown shore almost as 
brightly as does the sun. I sat upon the deck near 
to my cabin and by me stood Philo watching' that 
shore intently. 

“For what do you seek, Philo? Are you in fear 
of sunken rocks?” 

“Nay, Child of Isis, yet it is true that I seek a 
certain rock which by my reckoning should now be 
insight. Ah!” 

Then suddenly he ran forward and shouted an 
order. Men leapt up and sprang to the ropes 
while the rowers began to get out the sweeps. As 
they did this the Hapi came round so that her bow 
pointed to the shore and the great sail sank to the 
deck. Then the long oars bit into the water and 
drove us shoreward. 

Philo returned. 

“Look, Lady,” he said. “Now that the moon 
has risen higher you can see well,” and he pointed 
to a headland in front of us. 

Following his outstretched hand with my eyes I 

264 


THE TALE OF PHILO 265 

perceived a great rock many cubits in height and 
jcarven on the crest of it a head far larger than that 
.of the huge Sphinx of Egypt. Or perchance it was 
not carved; perchance Nature had fashioned it thus. 
At least there it stood and will stand, a terrible and 
hideous thing, having the likeness of an Ethiopian’s 
head gazing eternally across the sea. 

“What is jt?” I asked. 

“Lady, it is the Guardian of the Gate of the land 
whither we go. Legend tells that it is shaped to the 
likeness of the first king of that land who lived thou¬ 
sands upon thousands of years before the pyramids 
were built; also that his bones lie in it, or at least, 
that it is haunted by his spirit. For this reason 
none dare to touch and much less to climb yonder 
monstrous rock.” 

Then he left me to see to the matters of the ship, 
because, as he said in going, the entrance to the 
place was strait and dangerous. But I sat on 
alone upon the deck watching this strange new sight. 

Within an hour, rowing carefully, we entered the 
mouth of a river, having the rock shaped like to a 
negro’s head upon our right. Then it was that I 
saw something which put me in mind of Philo’s tale 
about an ancient king. For there, unless I dreamed, 
upon the very point of the skull of the effigy, of a 
sudden I perceived a tall form clad in armour which 
shone silvery bright in the moon’s rays. It leaned 
upon a great spear, and when we were opposite to 
it, straightened itself and bent forward as though to 
stare at our ship beneath. Next, thrice it lifted 
the spear in salutation; thrice it bov/ed, as I thought 
in obeisance to me, and having done so, threw its 
arms wide and was gone. 

Afterward I asked Philo if he also had seen 
this thing. 


266 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Nay,” he answered in a doubtful voice as though 
the matter were one of which he did not wish to 
talk, adding, 

“It is not the custom of mariners to study that 
head in the moonlight, because the story goes that 
if they do and chance to see some such ghost as that 
you tell of, it casts a spear toward them, who then 
are doomed to die within the year. Yet at you, 
Child of Isis, he cast no spear, only bowed and gave 
the salute of kings, or so you tell me. Therefore 
doubtless neither you nor any of us, your compan¬ 
ions, are marked for death.” 

I smiled and said that I whose soul was in touch 
with Heaven feared not the wraith of any ancient 
king, nor did we speak more of this matter. Yet 
in the after ages it came into my mind that there 
was truth in the story and that this long-dead king 
appeared thus to give greeting to her who was des¬ 
tined to rule his land through many generations; 
also that perchance he was not dead at all, but, hav¬ 
ing drunk of a certain Cup of Life of which I was 
to learn, lived eternally there upon the rock. 

I laid me down and slept, and when I woke in the 
bright morning it was to find that we had passed 
from that river into a canal dug by man which, 
though deep, was too narrow for the sweeps to 
work. Therefore the Hapi must be pushed along 
with poles and towed by ropes dragged at by the 
mariners from a path that ran upon the bank. 

For three days we travelled thus making but slow 
progress, since the toil of dragging so large a ship 
was great, and at night we tied up to the bank, as 
boats do upon the Nile. All this while we saw no 
habitation though certain ruins we did see. Indeed 
that country was very desolate and full of great 
swamps that were tenanted by wild beasts, the haunt 


THE TALE OF PHILO 


267 

of owls and bitterns, where lions roared and ser¬ 
pents crept, great serpents such as I had never seen. 

At length at noon on the fourth day we came to 
a lake where the canal ended, which lake once had 
been a harbour, for we saw stone quays where still 
were tied some boats that seemed to be little used. 
Here Philo said that we must disembark and travel 
on by land. So we left the Hapi, sadly enough for 
my part, because those were happy, quiet days that 
I had spent on board of her, veritable oases in the 
storm-swept desert of my life. 

Scarcely had we set foot upon the land when ap¬ 
peared, I knew not whence, a company of men, hand¬ 
some, hook-nosed, sombre men, such as I had seen 
among the crew upon the Hapi. These men, though 
so fierce in appearance, were not barbarians, for 
they wore linen garments that gave to them 
the aspect of priests. Moreover, their leaders 
could speak Arabic in its most ancient form, which, 
having studied it, as it chanced, I knew. With this 
army, who bore bows and spears, came a multitude 
of folk of a baser sort that carried litters, or bur¬ 
dens, also a guard of great fellows that Philo told 
me were my especial escort. Now my patience 
failed so that I turned upon Philo saying, 

“Hitherto, Friend, I have trusted myself to you, 
because it seemed decreed that I should do so. Now 
tell me, I pray you, what means this journey over 
countless leagues of sea into a land untrod, and 
whither go I in the fellowship of these barbarians? 
Because you brought me a certain writing in an ac¬ 
ceptable hour, I gave myself into your keeping, nor 
did I even ask any revelation from the goddess or 
seek to solve the mystery by spells. Yet, now I 
ask and, as the Prophetess of Isis, demand the truth 
of you, her humbler servant.” 


268 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Lady divine,” answered Philo, bowing himself 
before me, “what I have withheld is by command, 
the command of a very great one, of none less than 
Noot the aged and holy. You go to an old land 
that is yet new to find Noot, your master and mine.” 

“In the flesh or in the spirit?” I asked. 

“In the flesh, Prophetess, if still he lives, as these 
men say, and see, I accompany you, I whom in the 
past you have found faithful. If I fail you, let my 
life pay forfeit, and for the rest, ask it of the holy 
Noot.” 

“It is enough,” I said. “Lead on.” 

We entered the litters; we laded the bearers with 
the treasures of Isis and with my own peculiar 
wealth, and having placed the ship Hapi under 
guard, marched into the unknown like to some great 
caravan of merchants. For days we marched, fol¬ 
lowing a broad road that was broken down in 
places, over plains and through vast swamps, and at 
night sleeping in caves or covered by tents which 
we brought with us. 

This was a strange journey that I made sur¬ 
rounded by that host of hook-nosed, silent, ghost¬ 
like men, who, as I noted, loved the night better 
than they did the day. Almost might I have thought 
that they had been sent from Hades to conduct us 
to those gates from which for mortals there is no 
return. My fellowship of the priests and priest¬ 
esses grew afraid and clustered round me at night, 
praying to be led back to familiar lands and 
faces. 

I answered them that what I dared they must 
dare also, and that the goddess was as near to us 
here as she had been in Egypt, nor could death be 
closer to us than it was in Egypt. Yea, I bade them 
have faith, since without faith we could not be at 


THE TALE OF PHILO 


269 

peace one hour who, lacking it, must be over¬ 
whelmed with terrors, even within the walls of cita¬ 
dels. 

They hearkened, bowing their heads and saying 
that whatever else they might doubt, they trusted 
themselves to me. 

So we went on, passing through a country where 
more of these half-savage men that I learned were 
called Amahagger dwelt in villages surrounded by 
their cattle, or by colonies in caves. At last there 
arose before us a mighty mountain whose towering 
cliffs had the appearance of a wall so vast that the 
eye could not compass it. By a gorge we pene¬ 
trated that mountain and found within it an enor¬ 
mous, fertile plain, and on the plain a city larger 
than Memphis or than Thebes, but a city half in 
ruins. 

Passing over a great bridge spanning a wide 
moat once filled with water that now here and there 
was dry, we entered the walls of that city and by a 
street broader than any I had ever seen, bor¬ 
dered by many noble, broken houses, though some 
of these seemed still to be inhabited, came to a glor¬ 
ious temple like to those of Egypt, only greater, and 
with taller columns. Across its grass-grown courts, 
that were set one within another, we were carried to 
some inner sanctuary. Here we descended from 
the litters and were led to sculptured chambers that 
seemed to have been made ready to receive us, . 
where we cleansed ourselves of the dust of travel 
and ate. Then came Philo, who conducted me to 
a little lamp-lit hall, for now the night had fallen, 
where was a chair of state such as high^priests 
used, in which at his bidding I sat myself. 

I think that being weary with travel, I must have 
slept in that chair, since I dreamed or seemed to 


270 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


dream that I received worship such as is given to 
a queen, or even to a goddess. Heralds hailed me, 
voices sang to me, even spirits appeared in troops 
to talk to me, the spirits of those who thousands of 
years before had departed from the earth. They 
told me strange stories of the past and of the 
future; tales of a fallen people, of a worship and a 
glory that had gone by and been swallowed in the 
gulfs of Time. Then gathering in a multitude they 
seemed to hail me, crying, 

“Welcome, appointed Queen! Build thou up that 
which has fallen. Discover thou that which is 
lost. Thine is the strength, thine the opportunity, 
yet beware of the temptations, beware of the flesh, 
lest the flesh should overcome the spirit and by its 
fall add ruin unto ruin, the ruin of the soul to the 
ruin of the body.” 

I awoke from my vision and saw Philo standing 
before me. 

“Hearken, Philo,” I said. “Of these mysteries 
I can bear no more. The time has come when you 
must speak, or face my wrath. Why have I been 
brought hither to this strange and distant land 
where it seems that I must dwell in a place of 
ruins r 

“Because the holy Noot so commanded, O Child 
of Wisdom,” he answered. “Was it not set down 
in the writing I gave you at the Isle of Reeds upon 
the Nile?” 

“Where then is the holy Noot?” I asked. “Here 
I see him not. Is he dead?” 

“I do not think that he is dead, Lady. Yet to 
the world he is dead. He has become a hermit, 
one who dwells in a cave in a perilous place not 
very far from this city. To-morrow I will bring 
you to him, if that be your will. So only can .you 


THE TALE OF PHILO 


271 


see him who now for years has never left that cave, 
or so I think, save to fetch the food which is pre¬ 
pared for him.” 

kt A strange tale, Philo, though that Noot should 
become a hermit does not amaze me, since such was 
ever his desire. Now tell me how he came hither, 
and you with him?” 

“Lady, you will remember that in the bygone 
years when Nectanebes, he who was Pharaoh, fled 
up Nile, the holy Noot embarked upon my ship, the 
Hapi, to sail to the northern cities, that there he 
might treat with the Persians for the ransom of 
those temples of Egypt that remained unravished.” 

“I remember, Philo. What chanced to you upon 
that journey?” 

“This, Lady: that we were very nearly slain, every 
one of us, for whom the Persians had set a trap, 
thinking to snare Noot and his company and tor¬ 
ture him till he revealed where the treasures of the 
temples of Isis were hid away. Nevertheless, be¬ 
cause I am a good sailor and because that warrior 
priest, Kallikrates, was brave, we escaped into the 
canal which is called the Road of Rameses and so 
at last out to sea, for to return up Nile was im¬ 
possible. Then Noot commanded that I should 
sail on southerly upon a course he seemed to know 
well enough; or perchance the goddess taught it to 
him; I cannot say. At least I obeyed, so that in 
the end we reached that harbour which is guarded 
by a rock carved to the likeness of an Ethiopian’s 
head, and thence travelled to this place, still guided 
by the wisdom of Noot who knew the road.” 

“And Kallikrates? What became of Kallikrates 
—who it seems was with you?” I asked in an in¬ 
different voice, though my heart burned to hear his 
answer. 


272 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Lady, so far as it is known to me this is the story 
of Kallikrates and the Princess Amenartas.” 

“The Princess Amenartas! By all the gods, what 
is your meaning, Philo? She went up Nile with 
Nectanebes her father, he who was Pharaoh.” 

“Nay, Lady, she went down Nile with Kallikra¬ 
tes, or perhaps with Noot, or perhaps with herself 
alone. I do not know with whom she hid since I 
never saw her, nor learned that she was aboard 
my ship until we were two days’ journey out to sea 
and the coasts of Egypt were far behind us.” 

“Is it so?” I said coldly, though I was filled with 
bitter anger. “And what did the holy Noot when 
he found that this woman was aboard his vessel?” 

“Lady, he did nothing except look on her some¬ 
what doubtfully.” 

“And what did the priest Kallikrates? Did he 
strive to be rid of her?” 

“Nay, Lady, and indeed that would have been 
impossible, unless he had thrown her overboard. 
He did nothing except talk with her—that is, so 
far as I saw.” 

“Well, then, Philo, where is she now, and where 
is Kallikrates? I do not see him in this place.” 

“Lady, I cannot tell you, but I think it probable 
that they are dead and in the fellowship of Osiris. 
When we had been some weeks at sea we were 
driven by storm to an island off the coast under the 
lee of which we took shelter, a very fertile and 
beautiful island, peopled by a kindly folk. After 
we had sailed again from that island it was dis¬ 
covered that the priest Kallikrates and the Royal 
Princess Amenartas were missing from the ship, 
nor because of the strong wind that blew us for¬ 
ward was it possible for us to return to seek for 
them. I made inquiry of the matter and the sailors 


THE TALE OF PHILO 


273 

told me that they had been fishing together and that 
a shark which took their bait pulled them both into 
the sea; in which case doubtless they were drowned.” 

“And did you believe that story, Philo?” 

“Nay, Lady. I understood at once that it was 
one which the sailors had been bribed to tell. My¬ 
self I think that they went to the island in one of the 
boats of the people who dwell there; perhaps be¬ 
cause they could no longer bear the cold eyes of 
Noot fixed upon them, or perhaps to gather fruit, 
for which those who have been long upon water 
often conceive a great desire. But,” he added 
simply, “I do not know why they should have done 
this seeing that the island-dwellers brought us 
plenty of fruits in their boats.” 

“Doubtless they preferred to pluck them fresh 
with their own hands, Philo.” 

“Perhaps, Lady, or perhaps they wished to stay 
awhile upon that island. At least I noted that 
the Princess took her garments and her jewels with 
her, which she could scarcely have done if the shark 
had dragged her into the sea.” 

“Are you so sure, Philo, that she did not leave 
some of those jewels behind—in your keeping, 
Philo? It is very strange to me that the Princess 
Amenartas could have come aboard your ship and 
have left your ship, and you know nothing.” 

Now Philo looked up innocently and said, 

“Surely it is lawful for a captain to receive faring 
money from his passengers, and that I admit I did. 
But I do not understand why the Child of Wisdom 
is so wrath because a Greek and a great lady were 
by chance left together upon an island where, for 
aught I know, one or other of them may have had 
friends.” 

“Am I not the guardian of the honour of the 


274 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


goddess?” I answered. “And do you not know 
that under our law Kallikrates was sworn to her 
alone?” 

“If so, Prophetess, doubtless that captain, or that 
priest, remembers his oaths and deals with this 
princess as though she were his sister or his mother. 
At the least the goddess can guard her own honour, 
so why should you fret your soul concerning it, 
Prophetess? Lastly, it is probable that by now 
both of them are dead and have made all things 
clear to Isis in the heavenly halls.” 

Thus he prattled on, adding lie to lie as only a 
Greek can do. I listened until I could bear no 
more. Then I said but one word. It was “Be¬ 
gone!” 

He went humbly, yet as I thought, smiling. 

Oh! now I saw it all. Noot had made a plot to 
remove Kallikrates far from me, so that I might 
never look upon him again. Philo knew of this 
plot, and through him Amenartas knew it also. 
Unknown to Noot she bribed Philo to hide her 
upon his ship till they were far from land, though 
whether the plan was known to Kallikrates I could 
not say, nor did it greatly matter. Then the rest 
followed. Amenartas appeared upon the ship and 
cast her net about Kallikrates who had sworn to 
have done with her, and the end can be guessed. 
Noot was wrath with them, so wrath that when the 
chance came they fled away, purposing to stay upon 
that island until they could find a ship to take them 
back to Egypt or elsewhere. Thus, I was sure, 
ran the story, and, as it proved afterward, I was 
right. 

Well, they were gone and as I hoped, dead, since 
only death could cover up such sin, and for my part 
I was glad that I had done with Kallikrates and his 


THE TALE OF PHILO 


275 


light-of-love. And yet there, seated on the couch 
of state, I wept—because of the outrage done to 
Isis whom I served. Or was it for myself that I 
wept? I cannot say, I only know that my tears 
were bitter. Also I was very lonely in this strange 
and desolate place. Why had I been brought here, 
I wondered. Because Noot had commanded it, 
sending for me from afar, and what he commanded, 
that I must obey. Where, then, was Noot, who, 
Philo swore, still lived? Why had he not appeared 
to greet me ? I covered my eyes with my hands and 
threw out my soul to Noot, saying, 

“Come to me, O Noot. Come to me, my beloved 
Master.” 

Lo! a voice, a well-remembered voice answered, 

“Daughter, I am here.” 

I let fall my hand. I gazed with my tear-stained 
eyes, and behold! before me, white-robed, gold- 
filleted, snowy-bearded, grown very ancient and 
ethereal, stood the prophet and high-priest, my 
Master. For a moment I thought that it was his 
spirit which I saw. Then he moved, and I heard 
his white robes rustle, and knew that there stood 
Noot himself whom I had travelled so many thou¬ 
sand leagues to find. 

I rose; I ran to him; I seized his thin hand and 
kissed it, while he, murmuring, “My Daughter, at 
last, at last!” leaned forward and with his lips 
touched me on the brow. 

“Far away your summons reached me in an hour 
of peril,” I said. “Behold! I obeyed, I came. In 
faith I came, asking no questions, and I am here in 
safety, for I think the goddess herself was with me 
on that journey. Tell me all, O Noot. What is 
this place? How were you brought to it and why 
have you called me to you?” 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


*276 

“Hearken, Daughter,” he said, seating himself 
beside me on the throne-like couch. “This city is 
named Kor. Once she was queen of the world, as 
after her, Babylon, Thebes, Tyre, and Athens are, or 
have been queens. From Kor thousands of years 
ago in the black, lost ages Egypt was peopled, as 
were other lands. In those dim days by another 
title her citizens worshipped Isis, Queen of Heaven, 
only they named her Truth whom in Egypt you know 
as Maat. Then apostasy arose and many of this 
great people, abandoning the pure and gentle wor¬ 
ship of Isis wrapped in the veil of Truth, under the 
name of Rezu, a fierce sun-dasmon, set up another 
god to whom they made human sacrifices, as the 
Sidonians did to Moloch. Yea, they sacrificed men, 
women, and children by thousands, and even learned 
to eat their flesh, first as a sacred rite, and after¬ 
ward to satisfy their appetites. Heaven saw and 
grew wrath; Heaven smote the people with a 
mighty pestilence, so that they perished and per¬ 
ished till few were left. Thus Kor fell by the sword 
of God as, for like cause, fell Sidon.” 

“Of all this afterward,” I answered impatiently. 
“Tell me first, how came you here? Long years 
ago you sailed down Nile to treat with the Persians 
for the ransom of the temples of Egypt, a mission 
in which it seems you failed, my Father.” 

“Aye, Ayesha, I failed. It was but a trap, 
since those false-hearted Fire-worshippers thought 
to take me captive and hold my life in gage against 
all the treasures of Isis. By the cunning and sea¬ 
manship of Philo and the courage of a priest named 
Kallikrates, whom you may still remember after all 
these years,” here he glanced at me sharply, “I 
escaped when a gang of them disguised as envoys 
strove to snare me. But the road up Nile being 


THE TALE OF PHILO 


277 


barred, we were forced to fly south, and down 
Pharaoh’s Great Ditch, till at length, after many 
wanderings and adventures, we came to this land, as 
it was fated that I should do. You will remember, 
Daughter, that I told you I believed that we were 
parting for a long while, although I believed also 
that we should meet again in the flesh.” 

“I remember well,” I answered, “also that I swore 
to come to you at the appointed hour.” 

“I came to this land,” went on Noot, “but Kal- 
likrates, the Greek captain who was a priest of Isis, 
never reached it. He was lost on the way.” 

“With another, my Father. But now I have 
heard that story from Philo.” 

“With another who caused him to break his vows. 
Be sure, Daughter, that I knew nothing of her 
plot or that she was hidden aboard the ship, though 
perchance Philo knew. The goddess hid it from 
me, doubtless for her own purposes.” 

“Are this pair dead, or do they still live, my 
Father?” 

“I cannot say; that also is hidden from me. Bet¬ 
ter for them if they are dead, since soon or late for 
such sacrilege vengeance will fall upon the head of 
one, if not of both of them. Peace be to them. 
May they be forgiven! At least as I think they 
loved each other much and, since love is very strong, 
all who have ever loved where they ought not 
should have pity on them,” and again his question¬ 
ing eyes played upon my face. 


CHAPTER XIX 
The Hermitage of Noot 

“Tell me of what has passed in Egypt since Ochus 
conquered and Nectanebes fled away. Does Ochus 
still live, Daughter?” asked Noot after a pause 
during which both of us had sat staring at the 
ground. 

“Nay, Father, Ochus is dead and by my hand, or 
through it,” and I told him all that story of the 
burning of the temple of Isis at my command and of 
the Persians who defiled it. 

“A great deed such as you alone could have 
planned,” he muttered, “but terrible, terrible!” 

“Then your soul must bear its burden, Prophet, 
since it was your voice that we heard in the sanctu¬ 
ary, when in our extreme we prayed for guidance, 
and it told us to go forward. There are those with 
me who can bear witness that they heard your very 
voice, as I do.” 

“Mayhap, Daughter. It is true that on a certain 
day not so many moons ago, I seemed to hear you 
calling to heaven in great trouble and danger, also 
that by direction which came I know not "whence, 
I answered in my spirit that you must ‘fulfil and 
fear not.’ What you were to fulfil I did not know, 
though it came to my mind that the business had 
something to do with the burning of a temple.” 

“As it had indeed. Well, I fulfilled, as Ochus 
Artaxerxes and some hundreds of his Persian 

278 


THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 


279 


ravagers can testify before all the gods until the end 
of time, for those dogs at least have ceased to pol¬ 
lute the earth and to-day are enriching hell. There 
let them lie with Tenes and Nectanebes also, if in 
truth he has joined them, and many another false 
priest and king. Afterward we will talk of them 
and all their deeds of shame. But first tell me why 
I am here. For what end did you summon me from 
Egypt? Was it to save me from death?” 

“Nay, Ayesha, from more than that. Why 
should I wish to hold you back from the great boon 
of death in which so soon I must have joined you? 
I summoned you because I was commanded so to do, 
that now when Isis has passed from Egypt, you 
should cause her worship to re-arise at Kor which 
was her ancient home. It is willed that here you 
should abide and once more build up this people 
and make it great by the help of the Queen of 
Heaven who then will lead it on to triumph and to 
glory.” 

“That is a mighty task, Prophet. Still perchance 
with your aid it may be done if the gods give me life 
and wisdom.” 

He shook his head and answered, 

“Look not to my aid, for at length my day is 
finished. Has not Philo told you that I mix no 
more with matters of the world, I who for years 
past have dwelt a hermit in a terrible place, sheltered 
only by a cave and lost in the contemplation of holy 
things?” 

“No, Father, he has told me little or nothing— 
by your will, or so he said,” I replied, amazed. 

“Yet it is so; moreover, presently I must return to 
that prison whence I came, there to await the change 
called death. I have played my part, but your work 
still remains to do; Philo will aid you in it.” 


28 o 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“Why do you live in that place, Father, leav¬ 
ing me without the guidance of your wisdom?” 

“Because there I guard a great secret, that was 
revealed to me long ago, it matters not how, the 
greatest secret in the whole world—that of how men 
may escape from death and live on eternally upon 
the earth.” 

Now I stared at him, thinking that age and absti¬ 
nence had made him mad. Then, to test the matter, 
I asked, 

“If it be so great a secret, why do you tell it to 
me, Master?” 

“Because I must. Because I know well that if I 
do not, you would discover it for yourself, and being 
unwarned, would fall into the trap, and still living 
beneath the sun, dare to clothe yourself with this 
garment of immortality. It was for this reason 
that until twice the command had come to me, I 
would not summon you to Kor.” 

Now a new thought thrilled my soul. If this 
strange tale were true; if indeed here on earth there 
could be found such a door leading to the divine, 
why should I not pass it and become as are the 
gods? Only I did not believe that it was true. 

“Surely you have dreamed in your loneliness, my 
Father,” I said. “But know that if you did not 
dream, if it were true, I, Ayesha, should be minded 
to wear that robe of life eternal. Why not, O 
Prophet?” 

“Because, Ayesha, the man or woman who dared 
to eat of this fruit forbidden to their race here on 
[earth, where death is decreed for all, would be a 
man or woman who dared to enter into hell.” 

“I think otherwise, Prophet Noot, I think that 
this man or woman would enter into glory and be¬ 
come the ruler of the world,” I answered, and as I 



THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 281 

spoke the words my eyes flashed and my breast 
heaved. 

“Not so, Ayesha, since from that fatal peak of 
pride Heaven will beat back all human feet. Oh, 
hearken to me and purge your soul of the madness 
of this desire by which I see already it is possessed. 
It was laid upon me to reveal this secret to you, 
which I think was given me for that very purpose, so 
that you might show your greatness by rejecting it, 
the deadliest bribe that the god of Ill ever offered 
to mortal woman.” 

“Or perchance by accepting it, Master!” 

“Nay, nay! Bethink you. Is the world a fit 
place for the undying? Moreover, this secret that 
I guard is but the world’s spirit, not that of immor¬ 
tality; the hidden force from which our earth draws 
its strength, but which will perish with the earth, as 
it must do upon a day still hidden in the deeps of 
time. The drinker of that cup therefore would 
become, not eternal, but long-lived only, destined 
to perish at last with this passing star. For him 
death would not be destroyed, it would only be 
delayed, waiting ever to snare him in the end. Mean¬ 
while he must endure desolate and alone, watching 
the generations pass one by one to their appointed 
rest; while, filled perchance with fearful appetites 
which he must know eternally and yet remain un¬ 
satisfied, he stands but as a frozen rock upon the, 
plain, wearing a human shape, yet alien to mortal¬ 
ity, though still torn by its ambitions, its loves, 
its hates, its hopes, its fears, and waiting terrified 
for that predestined moment when this globe shall 
crumble and death shall devour it and him. 

“I am old, I am feeble, my hour is well nigh 
done, I pass to my repose in Heaven. Ayesha, I have 
no strength to stay your feet, if you elect to drink 


282 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


this cup my weak hand cannot dash it from your 
lips. Yet as one who has taught and loved you, as 
one to whom the gods have given wisdom, I pray 
you to thrust aside this great temptation. As our 
faith teaches truly, already your spirit is immortal 
and has its home prepared above. Desire not, 
therefore, to perpetuate your flesh, since if you do, 
Ayesha, I tell you that you will become but as a 
painted mummy in a tomb, simulating life, yet dead 
and cold within. Swear to me, Daughter, that you 
will lock this knowledge in your heart and thrust 
the poison from your lips.” 

“You speak wisely,” I answered, “aye, as one in¬ 
spired by the truth, and though I take no oaths, it is 
my purpose to do your will. Yet, Father, what is 
this secret? Having told me so much, tell all, lest 
I should go to discover it for myself.” 

“Daughter, near to this ancient city, amid the 
mountain cliffs, deep in the bowels of the rocks burns 
a travelling fire which is the very soul of the world, 
the flaming heart that gives it life. Yet this fire is 
no fire, but rather the essence of existence, and he 
who bathes in it will be filled with that essence and 
endure while it endures.” 

“Perchance such a one might be destroyed by that 
fire,” I answered doubtfully. 

“Daughter, I would that I could leave you think¬ 
ing thus, for then a great fear would pass from me. 
But we who are the chief servants of Isis dare not 
hide the truth one from another, since to do so is to 
break our oaths. Moreover, in this matter I do not 
speak with my own voice, but with that of a Strength 
which is greater than I, to whom now I stand so near 
that almost it and I are one. Therefore to your 
eyes I must withdraw all veils, showing you what is, 
as it is, and not as I would have it be. Yonder fire 


THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 


283 

will not destroy the mortal who finds the courage to 
stand in its raging path; it will give him life, and 
with it such strength, such beauty, and such wisdom 
as have never been the lot of man born of woman. 
Also it will give him such passions, such despairs, 
such enending woes as hitherto no mortal heart has 
known. 

“There is the truth. Ask me not how it comes 
into my keeping and what that voice may be which 
is speaking it through my lips. A minute gone this 
truth was mine alone, or perchance mine and one 
other’s. Now it is yours also, and being yours, I 
pray to that Divine from which we come and whither 
we return again, that it may give you strength and 
the true wisdom, knowing all, to reject all, and turn¬ 
ing aside from this glittering guerdon of enduring 
life, patiently to walk your human path to the end 
appointed to our human feet.” 

“Will you show me this fire, Prophet?” 

“Aye, if you will, for so I am commanded,” he 
answered faintly; “yet why look upon that which 
must excite desire?” 

Then weariness overcame him and he sank down 
swooning, so that had I not caught him, he would 
have fallen. 

Noot abode three days at Kor and talked with 
me of many things, but at that time of the wonderful 
Secret of Life he spoke no more. As though by 
consent both of us let that matter lie awhile. For 
the rest there was much to say. I told him every¬ 
thing that had passed in Egypt and the outer 
world since long years before he had left me to sail 
down Nile, never to return. I told him how I had 
obeyed his last commands to the letter, and sur¬ 
rounded though I was by foes, had preserved the 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


284 

worship of Isis in her temple from season to season, 
celebrating her festivals in their appointed course, 
though I never dared to leave its walls. 

“So, Ayesha,” he said when I had done, “while 
I have been a hermit here at Kor, you have 
been a hermit at Memphis. Well, each of us has 
served the goddess as best might be, so may she 
reward us both according to our deserts, which 
doubtless are but small. And now my task is fin¬ 
ished, but yours lies before you, seeing that you still 
have strength, even if your youth has gone.” 

“Yes,” I answered somewhat bitterly, “mid-age 
has overtaken me, my youth has passed in the service 
of Heaven, and what has Heaven given to me after 
all my wars and strivings? Just this—that in a 
savage, desolate land among ruins and barbarians I 
must begin anew. I must restore a faith decayed, 
collect those barbarians into armies and order them, 
enact laws and cause them to be obeyed, fight bat¬ 
tles, till lands, build ships and carry on commerce, 
collect revenues and spend them wisely, labour 
without cease day by day, finding but little rest at 
night because of the troubles that await the morrow. 
I must be at once a high-priestess, an oracle, a 
general, a law-giver, a judge, an architect, a land- 
tiller and a queen beneath an alien sky; without 
counsel, without friends, without love, without 
children to tend me in my age or to pile the earth 
upon my bones. Such is the lot that the goddess 
has given to her priestess Ayesha in payment of all 
her strivings.” 

Thus I spoke bitterly enough, but Noot answered 
with a gentle smile, 

“At least, Daughter, it might have been more 
evil. You have a planning and a thoughtful mind 
and here you can shape all things afresh to your de- 


THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 


285 

sire. You love power and here you will be absolute, 
a very queen, you who cannot brook denial. 
Here there will be none to say you nay. You hate 
rivals who would rule alone. Here they will be 
lacking. You desire to remain celibate who are 
wed to the spirit. Here no more kings or others 
will come to trouble you, plotting to win your 
beauty. It has ever been your wish to commune 
with Nature and that Divine from which it springs; 
here in this deserted place is Nature’s very home 
and in solitude the Divine draws near to empty souls. 

“Truly you should be thankful, therefore, whose 
prayers have been fulfilled, who have attained 
to all you sought, whose ambitions are satis¬ 
fied and who in the holy calm and the healthful 
weariness that follows upon long-continued labours, 
at last when your task is done, will sink gently to the 
grave to seek their reward elsewhere. Soon, very 
soon, you will be as I am and when that day comes 
there will be an empty hermitage yonder where in 
darkness and in contemplation you can patiently 
await the end and those new endeavours which, after 
it, may be appointed to you elsewhere. For be 
sure of this, Ayesha—all existence is a ladder up 
which painfully and with many slips we must climb 
step by step.’’ 

“And when we reach the top, what then, Master?” 

“I do not know, Daughter, but I do know that if 
we fall to the bottom, all those steps must be 
climbed again, only this time the rungs of the ladder 
will be wreathed with thorns.” 

“It seems that yonder hermitage of yours is no 
home of joy, my Father.” 

“Nay, Daughter. It is a home of grief and of 
repentance. The joy lies beyond. Such are the 
philosophy of life and the teachings of all religion. 


286 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


Be sorrowful and afterward you will rejoice. Re¬ 
joice and afterward you will be sorrowful.” 

“A sad philosophy, Prophet, and such lessons as 
slaves learn beneath the whip.” 

“Aye, Ayesha, but one that must be endured, as, 
if they could speak, Tenes and Ochus and Necta- 
nebes would tell you to-day.” 

So he droned on who grew weak and senile, hav¬ 
ing become but the dry shell of a man, whence the 
sap had withered, like to a sterile nut indeed, from 
which, if it were sown, no shoot would spring. At 
length wearying of his melancholy talk, I fell to the 
thought of that Fire of Life raging in its eternal 
vigour beneath his hermitage, which, as he swore, 
would give unending beauty, youth, glory, and 
dominion to him who could find faith and courage to 
dare its terrors. 

On the following day I accompanied Noot back 
to his hermitage for the quiet of which he seemed 
to yearn, so much so indeed that even for my sake 
whom he loved more than anything on earth and 
in whose fellowship he delighted, he would not be 
separated from it for another hour. 

It was a rough journey that we made borne in 
litters to the foot of the great precipice which sur¬ 
rounds the plain of Kor like to a measureless wall 
chiselled by Titans at the shaping of the world. 
We climbed up a cleft in that wall and entered a 
hidden fold of rock, invisible from below. Follow¬ 
ing this fold we came to the mouth of a cave. Plere 
I noted that food was set in plenty by the dwellers 
in this land who revered Noot as a prophet and 
thus supplied him with his sustenance. Plere also 
were torches which were lit by those who accom¬ 
panied us to give us light upon our journey through 


THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 


287 

the cave that was long and rough. At length we 
came to its end to find before us a terrible chasm. 
Thousands of feet above us was a line of blue sky 
and beneath lay a gulf of darkness. Out into this 
chasm down which winds raved and howled, ran a 
giant spur of rock of which the end was lost in dark¬ 
ness. I looked at it doubtfully and said, 

“Where then is your habitation, Noot, and by 
what road is it reached?” 

“It lies yonder in the darkness, Daughter,” he 
answered, smiling, “and this is the road that those 
who would visit me must travel,” and he pointed to 
the spur of rock that trembled in the roaring gale, 
adding, “To my feet it is familiar; moreover, I 
know that on it as elsewhere I am protected from 
harm. But if you fear to walk such a path, turn 
back while there is still time. Perhaps it would be 
better that you should turn back.” 

Now I looked at the trembling rock and then I 
looked at Noot, my Master. 

“What,” thought I to myself, “shall I, Ayesha, 
who dread neither man nor devil, be afraid to fol¬ 
low where this frail old priest can lead? Never will 
I blench from peril though in it lies my death.” 
So I stared him in the face and answered, 

“To the task, Father, and swiftly, for here the 
wind blows chill. I go first; Philo, follow me close.” 

Now Philo, who was my companion upon this 
adventure, glanced at me with questioning eyes, but 
being a brave man and one who as a sailor was ac¬ 
customed to perilous heights, said nothing. 

For a moment Noot paused, looking upward, 
perchance to pray or perchance for other reasons. 
Then having asked Philo how long it was to the 
time of sunset and been answered it lacked between 
the half and the fourth part of an hour before Ra 


288 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


sank behind the western cliff, he started, walking 
boldly down the spur. I followed next, and last 
came Philo. 

Very terrible was that journey in the uncertain 
light which as we progressed into the gulf grew 
ever fainter, till at last we were wrapped about with 
gloom. Moreover, always the spur of rock nar¬ 
rowed, and the raving gusts of wind which blew 
about that hideous gorge buffeted us more fiercely. 

Still we went on leaning our weight against them, 
and as we went a kind of exaltation seized me, as it 
does always in moments of great danger, so that my 
heart grew bold and feared no more. I would 
match myself against these elemental strengths as 
I had matched myself against those of hostile and 
desiring kings, and conquer them. Or perchance it 
was the breath from the divine fire that burned be¬ 
low that already had entered into me. I cannot say, 
but this I remember, that before I had reached the 
point of that fearful rock I was filled with a wild 
joy and could laugh at Philo crawling after me with 
hesitating steps and breathing prayers now to Isis 
and now to the Grecian gods that he had wor¬ 
shipped as a child. 

At length we came to the end of that long needle 
which thrust itself thus into the dark stuff of space, 
and as we did so all light went out of the sky above, 
leaving us plunged in blackness. I seated myself 
upon the throbbing point of rock, clinging to Philo 
who had done likewise, and cried into the ear of 
Noot, kneeling at our side, 

“What now? Show us and be swift, lest we 
should be thrown from this place like stones from a 
sling.” 

“Hold fast and wait,” answered Noot. 

We did so, grasping the roughness of the rock 


THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 289 

with our hands. Then suddenly a marvel happened, 
since from somewhere, I know not whence and have 
never learned, a fierce red ray of light, cast doubt¬ 
less by the setting sun, struck us through some hole 
in the opposing cliffs. Aye, it struck like a blazing 
sword, showing all things that could be seen. They 
were these: ourselves crouched upon that point of 
rock; infinite space beneath us, infinite space above 
reaching up to a single star that shone upon the sky, 
and we three hemmed in by two black precipices. 
Moreover, they showed, not four paces from the 
point, a huge trembling stone that was joined to 
that fearsome spar by a little bridge of wood laid 
from the one to the other by the hand of man, which 
bridge rose and fell and rocked as the great stone 
trembled on its farther side. 

“Follow me swiftly before the light dies,” cried 
Noot as he stepped across this bridge and, reaching 
the crest of the trembling stone, stood there like a 
ghost illumined with fire; like also to that figure 
which I had seen watching from the brow of the 
Ethiopian’s head when we entered the harbour 
from the sea. 

I obeyed and joined him, and after me came 
Philo. 

By the last rays of that fleeting light we descended 
a rough stairway cut on the farther side of the 
Trembling Stone and of a sudden found ourselves 
in shelter. Light sprang up and I saw that it was 
held in the hand of a dwarf, a curious, solemn dwarf. 
Whence this creature came and who he was I do 
not know, but I think that he must have been a 
spirit, some gnome from the Under-world appointed 
by the Powers which ruled in that dark place to at¬ 
tend to the wants of the holy Noot, their Master 
and mine. 


290 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


This I noted at least, and so did Philo, that we 
could never see this creature’s face. Even when 
he moved about us, always it seemed to be hidden 
either by shadows or something that hung in front 
of it like a veil. Yet man, or gnome, or ghost, he 
was a good servant, since in that hermit’s cave, 
or rather caves, for there were several of them, 
joined one to the other, all things were made ready. 
Thus a fire burned, food was prepared upon a table, 
and in the inner caves beds were spread, each in a 
little separate chamber. 

The outer cave also was furnished in a fashion and 
I noted that in a niche stood the small statue of Isis 
which I remembered well, since wherever Noot my 
Master went in the past years when we journeyed 
together, that statue went with him and now still 
it was his companion. Indeed the tale was that it 
could speak and gave him counsel in all hours of 
doubt and trouble, and that from this enchanted 
thing he gathered his great wisdom. Whether or 
no this tale were true, I do not know, since I never 
heard it utter words, nor would Noot tell me when I 
asked him. Yet it is true that it was his custom to 
pray to it; also that it was very ancient and valued 
by him more than all the gold and jewels on the 
earth. Now it stood here as it had done in my 
Father’s house at Ozal, as it had done at Philae in 
his chamber, at Memphis, on the ship Hapi and else¬ 
where when we journeyed together throughout the 
world, and it was strange to me to behold its famil¬ 
iar face again in this dreadful habitation. 

“Eat,” said Noot, “then sleep, for you are 
weary.” 

Philo and I did as he commanded. We ate, we 
laid ourselves down upon the beds in the inner caves, 
and slept. The last thing that my eyes saw before 


THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 


291 


slumber closed them was Noot my Master, now 
become more of a spirit than a man, kneeling in 
solemn prayer before the hallowed effigy of Isis. 

I know not for how long we slept, but it must have 
been many hours, for when we woke it was to see 
that dwarf whose face was always hidden, setting 
another meal upon the table in the outer cave. 
There, too, by the lamplight, I perceived Noot still 
praying to the statue of Isis as though he had never 
risen from his knees, which perchance he had not 
done who no longer was as are other men. It was 
a strange sight in that dread place and one that 
affrighted Philo, as he told me, and left me not un¬ 
moved, who felt that here we stood upon the edge 
of mortal things. 

I went to him, and seeing me come, he rose from 
his knees to greet me, asking me whether I had 
rested well. 

“Neither well nor ill,” I answered. “I slept, yet 
my sleep was full of dreams, very strange dreams 
that boded I know not what. They told me both 
of the past and of the future, and the burden of 
them was that I seemed to see myself living alone 
from generation to generation in caves as you do 
to-day.” 

“May the gods defend you from such a fate, 
Daughter,” he answered as though the thought dis¬ 
turbed him. 

“They have not defended you, Father. Oh! how 
can you bear to dwell in the darkness of this dread¬ 
ful place round which the winds howl eternally, 
companioned only by your thoughts and a dwarf 
who never speaks? How did you find it, how came 
you here, and what put into your mind the thought 
of choosing this burrow for a hermitage? Tell me 
truly, who as yet, I think, have hidden half the truth 


292 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


even from me, for I am devoured with wonder and 
would understand.” 

“Hearken, Ayesha. When first we met in Arabia 
I was already very old, was I not, I who now long 
have passed the tale of man’s allotted days? Be¬ 
fore that time for many years I had been a head- 
priest and prophet of Isis in Egypt, also the chief 
Magician of that land. Yet I was not born an 
Egyptian nor did my eyes so much as look upon the 
Nile until I had counted over sixty summers.” 

“Where then were you born, Father?” 

“Here in Kor. I am the last descendant of the 
king-priests who ruled in Kor before the great 
apostasy and the falling of the Sword of God. To 
the holy men who were my fathers had descended 
their knowledge of that secret of secrets whereof I 
have spoken to you, and ever it was their custom 
when age took a hold of them to withdraw into 
this living sepulchre and there as guardians of the 
Fire, to await the end. Also under many oaths 
each of them passed on to his descendants the knowl¬ 
edge of the secret. 

“Thus, Daughter, it came into my keeping, for 
my grandsire told my father, and my father whis¬ 
pered it to me. Then, while my grandsire still 
lived, the goddess for her own ends of which now I 
think I see the purpose, called me from this desolate 
land away to Egypt, there to serve her as I have 
done. Again she called me to Arabia that there 
you might be given into my keeping, as you were for 
certain years. A third time she called me back to 
Kor, whither I came with Philo. Here I found 
my grandsire dead and his son, my father, dead 
after him, leaving the hermitage of the Watcher of 
the Fire untenanted. Therefore setting Philo to 
command the savage tribes who dwell around the 


THE HERMITAGE OF NOOT 


293 


ruins of haunted Kor, hither I came, as for genera¬ 
tions my forbears have done, to fill the office that 
they filled, and—to die.” 

“Forgetting me upon whose head you left a heavy 
burden, my Father in Isis,” I said bitterly. 

“Nay, Ayesha, I forgot you not, who knew well 
that at the appointed time we should meet once 
more, as met we have. Always in my prayers I have 
watched over you and many of your troubles and 
dangers have been made known to me in dreams. 
It was in a dream that I heard you calling for guid¬ 
ance, and sent the answer that was commanded. 
Aye, and before that already I had despatched Philo 
to Egypt to bring you to me, as also I was com¬ 
manded. And now you stand here before me in 
my hermitage and I tell you all these things because 
last night I learned, while I prayed and you were 
lost in sleep, that we shall speak no more together. 
My hour is at hand and since I have no child of my 
body, to you, my child in the Spirit, I pass on the 
great secret as to you already I have passed on my 
high office and my wisdom. When the breath has 
left me, Ayesha, then to you will descend the guard¬ 
ianship of the Fire, and here, doubtless, when age 
has overtaken you, you also will end your days.” 

“Is it so?” I asked, dismayed, staring around me 
at the rocky walls and listening to the tempest that 
raged eternally without. 

“Aye, Ayesha, it is so, since that is the high duty 
laid upon your soul, whereby it shall find wings to 
fly to Heaven. Know that no Guardian of the Fire 
enters into the Fire. He watches it—no more— 
and if it is threatened he seals it for ever from the 
sight of man. Listen, I will tell you how,” and 
leaning forward he whispered certain words into 
my ear and showed me certain hidden things. 


294 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

I heard, I saw, I bowed my head. Then I asked, 

“And if the Guardian of the Fire entered into the 
Fire, what then, Watcher of the Fire?” 

“Daughter, I know not,” he answered, horror- 
struck. “But then I think the Fire would become 
his guardian, a terrible guardian that at the last 
would also be the destroyer of its false servant. 
More I cannot tell, because though! some have 
breathed its essence, none of them has dared this 
deed.” 

“Two nights ago you told me, O Noot, that this 
fire gives youth and beauty and uncounted days to 
those who bathe therein. If none has ever entered 
it, how know you this?” 

“Because it is so, Ayesha. Moreover, I did not 
say that none had ever entered it. Perchance there 
are beings now known to the world as gods or dae¬ 
mons, who, by accident rather than design, have 
tasted of this cup. Perchance that shape you saw 
standing on the Ethiopian’s head, in some bygone 
age stood for an instant in its path. At least I 
repeat that it is so. Believe or disbelieve as you 
will, but ask me no more, and above all do not ven¬ 
ture to solve the mystery in your mortal flesh.” 

“At least, Prophet, let me look upon that which 
I must guard,” I said. 

“Aye, you shall look,” he answered. “It is for 
that reason that I have brought you here, Priestess 
and Daughter of Wisdom, for having looked, I do 
not think that you will desire to bathe in that red 
flame. Eat now and make ready.” 


CHAPTER XX 
The Coming of Kallikrates 

Awhile later we left the cave, Noot, Philo, and I, 
each of us bearing a lighted lamp. Clad in a dark 
cloak Noot led the way, his lamp in one hand and in 
the other a long staff such as herdsmen use upon the 
mountain side. Strange enough he seemed thus ar¬ 
rayed, with his thin, transparent face, his eyes grown 
large and luminous from staring at the darkness, 
and his long white beard showing like snow against 
the black texture of the cloak; more of a spirit than 
a man indeed, or like Charon leading shadows of 
the dead to that boat in which all—aye, even I, 
Ayesha—must embark at last. Never shall I for¬ 
get his aspect as he searched for and found the stair 
that led to the rock-strewn slope which stretched 
downward for a furlong or more to the narrow 
passage at its end, through which presently we 
travelled into the infernal halls beyond. 

Great were those halls or caverns; so great that 
we light-bearers were but as ants creeping through 
their vastness, so great that we could see neither 
their walls nor roof. 

We passed through two of them, our footfalls 
echoing in their fearful silence, and came to a pas¬ 
sage. 

“Bide here,” said Noot to Philo, “and await us, 
since it is not lawful for you to look upon that which 
lies beyond. If perchance we should not return 

295 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


296 

within three hours so nearly as you can measure 
them, which may happen since we go to where there 
is danger for mankind, win your way back to the 
world and say that the gods have taken Noot the 
Prophet and Ayesha the High-Priestess to be of 
their company.” 

So Philo, out of whose eyes all the Grecian joyous¬ 
ness had fled, sat himself down upon a rock to wait, 
as I could see unwillingly enough, for he loved this 
adventure little and was troubled for the safety of 
me whom he loved much. 

“Fear not,” I whispered to him, “the hour is still 
far in which Ayesha must fall a ripe fruit from the 
Tree of Life.” 

“I pray so, Child of Isis,” he answered, “since 
surely we have entered into Hades where I would 
not be left without so much as a fellow shade to 
comfort me. Yet beware! for I know not whither 
that old ghost is leading you,” and he glanced at the 
tall shape of Noot striding into the tunnel in which 
this cave ended, the lamp held above his head. 

I followed after him, also holding my lamp aloft, 
though presently it became needless since now the 
darkness of that hole grew alive with rosy light. 
On like a swift shadow glided Noot, and I followed 
him into the heart of the light, into a place, too, 
where thunder was imprisoned, like winds in the 
bag of iEolus, aye, a place filled with glories and 
with roarings, though whence these came I could 
not guess. 

We entered yet another cavern, not so very large 
in size and carpeted with fine white sand. 

It was empty save for one thing. On the sand 
lay a withered shape, a hideous little shape that 
once had been man or woman. Whose it was and 
how it came there I never learned, since in the 


THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 297 

marvel of all that followed and afterward I for¬ 
got to ask it of Noot, if indeed he could have told 
me. Perchance some seeker of the Fire who lived 
a thousand or ten thousand years before had per¬ 
ished of terror at the sight of it, or perchance for 
his or her impiety that seeker had been sacrificed 
by gods or men. Yet even then I thought it dread¬ 
ful and ominous that the first sight my eyes beheld 
in this terrible place should be this shrivelled, long¬ 
haired lump of death lying there in eternal solitude, 
while in front of and around it played the fierce es¬ 
sences of Life eternal. 

This cavern was filled with a light like to that of 
some tempestuous Libyan dawn. Also it was filled 
with a muttering, thunderous sound, such sound as 
is caused by the iron wheels of a thousand chariots 
rushing to battle adown a rocky way. The light 
multiplied and was stabbed through as though by 
many coloured levins flashing hither and thither; 
the thunders gathered to an awful roar; those un¬ 
earthly chariots were rolling down upon us. 

“To your knees,” cried Noot in my ear. “The 
Fire comes, the god is passing by!” 

I knelt; my hand rested by chance upon that little 
shrivelled form, and lo! at my touch it crumbled 
into dust. It had been, it was not; the grinning 
twisted face was gone; nothing of it remained save 
a lock or two of curling hair—surely it must have 
been a woman’s hair. Then the marvel happened. 
Before me appeared a turning column of glorious, 
many-coloured brightness, that roared and bellowed 
like a million maddened bulls. To my eyes it 
seemed to take the shape of a mighty man, and in 
its glowing crest I saw green eyes of emerald like 
to those of tigers, which eyes fixed themselves upon 
me. Arms it had also, blood-red, splendid arms that 


298 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

-stretched themselves toward me as though to clasp 
me to that burning breast. It was terrible and yet 
it was most beauteous. Never until I saw it had I 
known beauty, no not even in the dawn or in 
the sunset, or in the sight of the wild shock of 
battle. 

This mighty god of Life seemed to call to the 
life within me, like a king to his subject, like a 
master to his slave; I longed to lose myself in that 
embrace of fire. Half I rose from my knees. 
Noot caught me by the arm. 

“Enter not!” he cried sternly, and again I sank 
down and hid my face upon the sand. 

How long I lay there I do not know, for exalta¬ 
tion seized me and made my senses drunk, so that 
I could take no count of time. It may have been 
for a minute or an hour; I say I do not know. 
When I looked up again, the Fire had gone by, the 
god was hidden in his secret sanctuary, though still 
the cavern glowed with rosy light. 

Noot drew me from that place. Without we 
found Philo pale-lipped and trembling, and together, 
slowly and with labour, we climbed our upward 
course back to the hermitage beneath the swaying 
stone. Here we rested in silence until at last Noot 
drew me aside and spoke. 

“Ayesha,” he said, “you have seen as it was 
decreed that you must see. In that burning pres¬ 
ence temptation took hold of you, so sharp a 
hold that had I not been there, perchance you 
would have yielded, forgetting my warnings and 
my prayers. Now I beseech you, guard the Fire 
in the days to come, but look on it no more for ever, 
since although in other matters you are so strong, 
in this I feel you frail. While I live indeed never 


THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 


299 


again shall you behold it with your eyes, since first 
I will call upon the goddess to cut your thread of 
life and take you to herself.” 

I bowed my head but made no answer, nor did he 
ask for any. 

What happened then? Oh! I remember that we 
ate of food that was made ready doubtless by the 
gnome-like dwarf whom I saw no more. After 
this Noot looked from the door of his hermitage 
and called to us to come swiftly, since the moment 
of sunset that brought with it the falling ray was 
at hand and the bridge must be crossed and the 
narrowest of the stone spur travelled ere it departed. 
Holding lighted lanterns in our hands, he led us 
to the crest of the Trembling Stone whereon the 
timbers of the bridge creaked and swayed. Here 
he clasped me in his arms, blessing me and bidding 
me farewell, and though he said it not, I was cer¬ 
tain that in his mind, as at the moment I did in 
mine, he believed that our spirits parted for ever 
upon this earth; yes, believed it so surely that tears 
coursed down his pale cheeks. 

Then suddenly the sword-like ray of fire stabbed 
the darkness and by it I and Philo crossed the 
bridge and while it endured clambered swiftly along 
the spur of which, I know not why, all fear had left 
me. 

As that ray began to fade I turned my head to 
look my last on Noot. There in the heart of it he 
stood, clothed as it were with fire, as our faith tells 
are the messengers of Isis, Queen of Heaven. Yes, 
there he stood with clasped hands and uplifted eyes 
like to one lost in prayer. Then the ray went out 
like a blown lamp and the darkness fell and swal¬ 
lowed him. 

We gained the plain in safety and through the 


300 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


night were borne back to Kor. The litter swayed; 
the slaves whose shoulders bent beneath the pole 
sang their low, weird chant inviting to sleep, but its 
messengers would not touch my eyelids with their 
rod of slumber. I could not sleep whose soul 
burned with a fierce wakefulness. Oh! what was 
this wonder that I had seen? The very fount of 
Life that, hidden from mankind, burns in the womb 
of the world! But if it were this, why did Noot 
speak of it as though it were a fount of Death? 
Why did he forbid me to taste its cup? Perhaps 
because not Life but Death inhabited that flame, as 
the little withered thing which had crumbled at my 
touch, that once had been man or woman—woman, 
as I think—hinted to the mind. 

I knew not, but what I did know was that hence¬ 
forth I was plighted to this god of Fire and that 
in some day to come I must feel his burning mar¬ 
riage kiss upon my brow. 

When we came to Kor at the sunrise I beckoned 
Philo to me and made to him the sign of silence, 
which being initiated, he knew well, so that neither 
then nor at any other time should any word concern¬ 
ing these mysteries pass his lips. Nor indeed could 
it do so as he had not looked upon the greatest of 
them and only from afar had listened to the thun¬ 
der of the wheeling flame. 

Then with a new energy, as though inspired by 
the breath of that fiery god, I got me to my common 
daily task of rebuilding a perished faith and people. 
Let that business be. Why should I speak of it, 
since Destiny decreed that I must shape my work of 
water or of drifting sand, not of rock or fired clay. 
Oh! Fate, why didst thou fool me thus? Oh, Love 
the Destroyer, why didst thou make of me thy tool, 


THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 301 

and with me thus bring Isis and her worship to the 
dust? 

How long afterward was it that Kallikrates 
came? But a little while, I think, though to one 
who has lived over two thousand years Time loses 
its measure and significance. 

I had sent Philo to the coast, purposing to pre¬ 
pare for the opening up of trade and converse with 
the outer world. For in this rich place, when its 
wild people were brought beneath my yoke, who 
already looked upon me as one half divine, as the 
spirit of their ancient goddess indeed, sent back to 
them from Heaven, I knew that we could produce 
much that the teeming tribes of Libya would seek 
and buy. One night he returned and was at once 
admitted to my presence. He told me of all that 
he had done, or failed to do, and I praised him, 
then made the signal of dismissal. He hesitated a 
while, then said, 

“Child of Isis, be pleased to learn that I have not 
returned alone.” 

“That I know already, Philo, since there were 
many in your company.” 

“Be it understood, Child of Isis, that I have 
brought back with me some with whom I did not 
set forth.” 

“Doubtless envoys from the peoples of the 
coast,” I answered indifferently. 

“Nay,” he replied, “travellers who have wandered 
long among those peoples and whom I found ship¬ 
wrecked and in a desperate state. Travellers from 
Egypt.” 

“From Egypt! How many, Philo?” 

“Nine in all, Prophetess, though the most of 
them are servants.” 


302 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


‘‘Good, Philo. It will please me who must dwell 
so much alone to talk with strangers from Egypt. 
They may have news of what passes on the Nile. 
Give them hospitality such as we can command, and 
all they need, and to-morrow, after the morning 
ceremonies, bring them to me. To-night it is too 
late and doubtless they are weary.” 

Again he hesitated, then bowed, and went, leaving 
me wondering, for there was that in his manner 
which I thought strange. Still, having spoken my 
commands, I would not alter them. Yet as I laid me 
down to sleep terror took hold of me; yes, a terror 
of I knew not what. I felt that evil overshadowed 
me with its black wings; that I was about to look 
upon something or someone I did not desire 
to see; that a doom unknown had meshed me so 
that I lay helpless like a gladiator over whom the 
net-thrower has cast his web and who lies strug¬ 
gling vainly, the trident at his throat. Thus 
often does advancing peril cast its cold shadow 
upon our mortal hearts which shiver at the touch 
of that they feel but cannot discern. 

I thought that perchance I was about to die, that 
already Death gripped me with his clasp of ice; that 
in the dark recesses of the chamber where I lay 
already some murderer fingered the dagger which 
should pierce my breast, as well might happen in 
this wild land among man-eating savages upon 
whose necks I had set my heel. Again I thought 
that the spirits of the ancient dead whose place 
I occupied, were hunting me, demanding that I 
should give them back their own, the rule I had 
usurped. 

Next I remembered Tenes transfixed by the 
sword of vengeance and knowing now that mine 
was the hand that drove it, and Ochus Arta- 


THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 


303 


xerxes when the poison began to burn his vitals as 
presently the fire would burn his company, guessing 
at the last that I, the outraged priestess, had brewed 
the cup and lit the fire. Yea, all these memories 
gathered round me, rising like black clouds upon 
my sky of life and threatening its eclipse, I who was 
terrified of I knew not what. 

Lastly there came into my mind this tale of 
Philo’s of shipwrecked strangers whom he had 
rescued and led hither to be comforted. Who 
were these strangers, I wondered? Assassins per¬ 
chance, hid under a disguise of want and desola¬ 
tion, men who sought to kill me and free my spirit 
with their dagger-points, that it might no longer 
watch them here on earth. Yet, and this was 
marvellous, showing how blind are the eyes of our 
mortal flesh, never did the thought come to me that 
those strangers might be Kallikrates the Greek and 
Amenartas, aforetime Royal Princess of Egypt, 
she whom her desire and hate had made my foe. 

I slept at last, though feverishly, only to wake 
when the high sun was flooding the temple court 
with its fierce summer rays. I rose, and since the 
day was one of ceremony and festival, was arrayed 
by my women in the queenly garments of the high- 
priestess of Isis and hung about with the sacred 
jewels and emblems of my rank. 

Thus splendidly attired, I was led to my seat of 
state that I had caused to be placed in the inmost 
pillared court before a wondrous veiled statue of 
Truth standing on the world, which some god-gifted 
artist of old Kor had fashioned in the forgotten 
days. Here we celebrated our service with pomp 
and ritual, as once we were wont to do in Egypt, 
though alas! the heirophants and the singers were 
few in number. So was the outer congregation of 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


304 

half-converted worshippers creeping back from the 
blackness of their barbarous rites to the holy fel¬ 
lowship of the goddess. 

The office was ended, the ringing of the sistrum 
had ceased, the blessing was given and with it the 
absolution of offences. 

The worshippers had dispersed, save here and 
there one who remained to pray. I too was about 
to depart when Philo came, saying, humbly and 
hastily like one who desires to be done with an un¬ 
welcome task, that those wanderers of whom he had 
spoken waited upon my pleasure. 

“Admit them,” I answered, wondering within 
myself upon whom I was about to look. Male¬ 
factors perchance, I thought, who had fled from 
justice into far lands, or merchants driven south¬ 
ward by the gales, or humble seamen escaped from 
some sunk ship. 

They came, a little knot of them, winding in and 
out between the great columns of the ruined temple, 
advancing through the shadows. Idly I noted, as 
they passed an open space where fell a stronger 
light, that the two who walked first had a noble air, 
different from that of those who followed after 
them. Then once more the shadows veiled them, 
whence presently they emerged before me, seated 
beneath the statue, and stood there, the sun’s rays 
pouring down upon them. 

I glanced at them and saw that they were man and 
woman, perfect man and very beauteous woman. 
Then I lifted my head and looked them fully in the 
face, only to sink back terrified, amazed, over¬ 
whelmed! Did I dream? Had some mocking 
spirit tricked my eyes, or were these that stood 
before me Kallikrates, the Grecian warrior-priest, 
and Amenartas, the Royal Princess of Egypt? 


THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 


305 

Lifting my hand to hide my face, I studied them 
beneath its shade. Oh! who could be mistaken? 
There before me, splendid in beauty as of old, stood 
the god-like Kallikrates and at his side, dark, magni¬ 
ficent and as yet untouched by time, or perchance 
protected from its ravages by arts she learned from 
her sire, Nectanebes the sorcerer, was the imperial 
Amenartas. For a moment I kept silence, gather¬ 
ing up my strength, ordering my spirit. Then still 
holding my hand before my face, I spoke coldly as 
though without concern, saying, 

“Whence come you, noble strangers? What 
are your names and why do you seek the hospi¬ 
tality of the Queen of this ruined land of Kor?” 

Bold as ever, it was Amenartas who answered 
me, not Kallikrates, who stood staring about him 
as men do when they are uneasy in their minds or 
wearied with ceremonies. 

“We are wanderers, Priestess, in station neither 
mean nor great; traders, to tell the truth, from the 
far north, who having suffered shipwreck and many 
other things at length were rescued of this servant 
of yours who led us here,” and she pointed to Philo 
standing near by with a stupid smile upon his face. 

“By race we are Phoenicians called-” and she 

gave some name that I forget. “As to the rest, being 
in extremity, for those over whom we ruled rebelled 
against us and cast us out, we ask shelter from you 
until Fortune smiles upon us again, who of late 
has dealt us naught but frowns.” 

“It is granted, Lady. But tell me, what arc you 
to each other? Brother and sister, perchance?” 

“Aye, Priestess, brother and sister, as you have 
rightly guessed, seeing that our names are one 
name.” 

“That is strange, Lady; indeed I think that you 




WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


306 

throw mud upon your father or your mother, or 
both, since how could these have begotten one dark, 
a high-born daughter of the Nile, and another 
fair as Apollo and having Grecian Apollo’s face 
and mien? Again, how comes it that the sister of 
a Phoenician merchant binds up her locks with the 
circlet of Egyptian royalty?’’ And I pointed to 
the uraeus-twisted band of gold upon her brow. 

“Blood plays strange tricks, Priestess, searching 
out now the likeness of one ancestor, and now of 
another, so that ofttimes one child is born dark 
and the other fair. As for the ornament, I bought 
it in trade from an Arab merchant, not knowing 
whence it came or its significance,’’ she began to 
answer unabashed, when of a sudden Kallikrates 
checked her, muttering, 

“Have done!” Then addressing me, he said, 
“O Queen and Priestess, take no heed of this 
lady’s words, since of late, because of our mis¬ 
fortunes, we have been forced to tell many strange 
tales according to the conditions of the hour. We 
are not Phoenicians born of one House; we are by 
blood Greek and Egyptian, and by relation not 
brother and sister, but man and wife.” 

Now when I heard these words my heart stood 
still who hoped that Isis and their oaths might have 
held this pair apart. Yet I answered calmly, 

“Is it so, Wanderer? Tell me then, of what 
faith are you twain and by whom were you wed? 
Did some minister of Zeus join your hands, or did 
you stand together before Hathor’s altars?” 

Then while he searched for some answer that 
he could not find, I went on, laughing a little, 

“Perchance, O noble pair, you were not wed at 
all. Perchance you are not husband and wife but 
only lover and lover mated after Nature’s fashion!” 


THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 307 

He hung his head, confused, and even the bold 
eyes of Amenartas were troubled. 

Now I could bear no more. 

u O Grecian Kallikrates,” I said, “aforetime cap¬ 
tain of Pharaoh’s guard, aforetime priest of Isis, 
and O Amenartas, daughter of Nectanebes, by birth 
Royal Princess of Egypt, why do you waste words, 
hoping to fool one who cannot be deceived? Doubt¬ 
less you have bribed yonder Philo to hide the truth, 
as once you bribed him to hide a certain lady upon 
his ship and to set the two of you ashore upon a 
certain island.” 

“If so, he has betrayed us,” stammered Kal¬ 
likrates, the red blood rising to his brow. 

“Nay, he has not betrayed you, being one who 
ever keeps faith with those who pay him well. Is 
it not so, Philo my servant?” 

I waited for an answer, but none came, for Philo 
had gone. Then I continued, 

“Nay, Philo did not betray you, nor was it 
needed. Royal Amenartas, whence had you that 
scarab ring upon your hand?” 

“It was my lord’s gift to me,” she answered. 

“Then tell me, Kallikrates, whence had you the 
ring, also if there be graven on its bezel in the 
Egyptian writing, signs that mean ‘Royal Son of 
the Sun’ ?” 

“Those signs are cut upon the ring, O Queen, 
which in bygone years was given to me as a talisman 
by a certain divine priestess whom I saved in battle, 
that its virtues might recover me of wounds which 
I received in the battle. This, as I was told after¬ 
ward, it had the power to do because that ring 
was blessed, having been fashioned like to one which 
Isis the Mother set as her love gift upon the hand 
of dead Osiris ere she breathed his soul into him 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


308 

again. Or perchance it was the very same that 
Osiris left upon the earth when he passed to 
Heaven; I know not.” 

Thus he spoke, stumbling at the words like an 
ill-bred mule upon a stony path till, wearying of the 
tale, I broke in, 

“Therefore, O Kallikrates, you in your turn 
gave the enchanted ancient amulet to a woman you 
desired, or who desired you, hoping that its virtues 
might consecrate your unhallowed union. O priest 
forsworn, how did you dare this sacrilege—to set 
upon your lover’s hand the ring, the very ring of 
Isis that once great Khaemuas wore, given to you by 
the Prophetess of Isis to lift you from the gates of 
death.” 

Then bending forward so that the shadow of the 
statue behind no longer hid me, I uncovered my 
face and looked him in the eyes. 

“I thought it!” he said, “though who could have 

dreamed that here in this ruin-? It is the 

Oracle and the Prophetess. It is the Child of Isis, 
the Daughter of Wisdom herself whose voice I 
knew again through all her feigning,” and he fell to 
the ground so that his brow was pressed upon its 
stones, muttering, 

“Slay me, Queen, and have done, but spare this 
lady and send her back to her own land, since the sin 
is mine, not hers, who was no priestess.” 

Now Amenartas stared at me with her bold eyes, 
then cried with a hard laugh, 

“Be not so sure, my Lord, for this is scarcely pos¬ 
sible. Well do I remember looking upon her who 
was called Isis-come-to-Earth in the bygone days, es¬ 
pecially at a certain feast that Pharaoh gave when 
she unveiled to show herself to Tenes, King of Sidon, 
who afterward took her as his slave. But that 



THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 309 

seeress was a very fair woman, although perchance 
even then somewhat faded, or so I who but 
a little while before had bade farewell to child¬ 
hood, judged of her. Therefore this ruler of 
ruins can scarcely be the same, seeing that none 
could name her fair. Look, she is old and withered, 
her neck has fallen in, her shape is flattened. 

“The seeress I remember had a lovely mouth of 
coral, but this lady’s lips are thin and pale; also she 
had large and beauteous eyes, but those of this lady 
are small and almost colourless. Moreover, they are 
ringed beneath with lines of black, such as are com¬ 
mon to aged virgin priestesses who have never 
known the love of man, though of it, perchance, 
their holy souls still dream even in the midst of 
their customary, bead-checked prayers, while, like 
those of slaves, their knees harden upon the stones. 

“Nay, my Lord, although time works strange 
changes in those who have passed the meridian of 
their days, this priestess who hides her gray hairs 
beneath the vulture cap of her persuasion can 
scarcely be the same as that glowing pythoness upon 
whom once we looked in Pharaoh’s halls and who, 
as I recall, then looked much on you.” 

Now I listened to this vulgar venom, the common 
outpouring of a small-natured, jealous heart, and 
smiled. Yet it is true, for in these lines I write 
nothing which is not the truth, that some of those 
poisoned shafts went home. I knew well that all 
the beauty that once I had was no longer mine; 
that the passing of the years, that care and ab¬ 
stinence and the turning of my heart from things 
mortal to those divine, added to the weight of rule 
and wisdom and avengement which Destiny had 
laid upon my brow, had robbed me of my bloom 
and that imperial loveliness which once enthralled 


3io 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


the world. Also it was true that Amenartas was 
still a child when I was a woman grown and there¬ 
fore had Nature’s vantage of me, which indeed must 
increase from moon to moon. 

Still I smiled, and as I smiled a great thought 
smote me, sowing a seed of daring in the kind soil 
of my breast where thenceforth it was doomed to 
grow, to blossom, and in an unborn hour of fulfil¬ 
ment to bear its fearful fruit. Oh! if I have sinned 
against high Heaven and the commands of its 
minister, my guide, the holy Noot, let the record- 
ing gods remember that it was the whip of this 
woman’s bitter tongue which drove me to the deed. 

Now very gently I spoke, saying, 

“Rise, Kallikrates, such words as you have 
heard spoken of one who once was set above you 
in her office can scarcely be pleasing to your ears, 
nor will I answer them. I know well that in them 
there is something of the truth and I am proud 
that it has been granted to me to make sacrifice to 
the Queen of Heaven whom I adore of such small 
gifts of the flesh and comeliness as once were mine. 
It is but another offering which I heap upon her 
altar, one of many. 

“Yet, Kallikrates, though as I think you can no 
longer bow the knee before that Majesty as once 
you did, I pray you, if you can, to hold this lady’s 
lips from pouring scorn upon her, as she does upon 
me, her priestess. I pray you to bring it to her 
memory that once, clad in her veil of Isis, she also 
worshipped at that shrine, aye, that in a time of 
peril, often there, she and you and I have sent up 
our pure petitions, though not in the ‘customary 
bead-checked prayers’ of which she speaks. Yes, 
bring it to her memory that though the temple of 
Memphis has been given to the flames, Mother Isis 


THE COMING OF KALLIKRATES 311 

hears and watches not in Egypt, but in Heaven, and 
that though she be slow to wrath, yet she still can 
smite. Now, Kallikrates, go rest you, taking 
your love with you, and afterward we will talk 
alone since, although I can forgive, I am not minded 
to be stoned with such words as angry women of 
the people throw at their rivals in the marketplace.” 


CHAPTER XXI 

The Truth and the Temptation 

Not that day but on the morrow Kallikrates asked 
audience of me. Learning that he was alone, I 
received him in my private chamber and bade him be 
seated. He obeyed, and for awhile I watched him, 
the light from the window-place falling upon his 
golden head and upon his shining armour, battered 
with storm and war. For now he was clad in his 
soldier’s garb, perchance the very same that years 
ago he had worn on board the Hapi, and thus at¬ 
tired looked like a king of men. 

“The lady Amenartas is somewhat sick after all 
our journeyings,” he said, “I think that the dis¬ 
order which is common on the coast lands has fallen 
upon her, since her face is flushed and her hands 
are hot. Therefore she cannot wait upon you, 
Prophetess. Yet she bids me thank you for your 
hospitality, and say that she asks your pardon for 
any bitter words she may have spoken yesterday, 
since these sprang, not from her heart, but from a 
fever burning in her blood.” 

“It is granted. I know this sickness though my¬ 
self I have been protected from it, and will send her 
medicine and with it a skilled woman to wait upon 
her. Bid her not to fear; it is seldom dangerous. 
Now, my guest Kallikrates, if it pleases you, let me 
hear your story; you must have much to tell since 
we parted in the sanctuary at Memphis. Then, you 
will remember, your purpose was to accompany the 

312 


THE TRUTH AND THE TEMPTATION 313 

holy Noot upon his mission, because you thought 
it best for reasons of your own to depart from 
Memphis for awhile. Yet I think it was in your 
mind to go alone, not accompanied by that royal 
lady who is your companion.” 

“This is true, Prophetess,” he answered heavily, 
“nor did I know that the lady of whom you speak 
was aboard the Hapi until, to escape capture at the 
hands of the Persians, we had fled from the Nile out 
toward the open sea.” 

“I understand, Kallikrates, nor can it be denied 
that Fate dealt hardly, or perchance I should say 
kindly, with you when it caused the lady Amenartas 
to embark in error upon the ship Hapi, which sailed 
down Nile, instead of that of her father, Necta- 
nebes, which set its course for Thebes and Ethiopia.” 

“Mock me not, Child of Wisdom. As the lady 
Amenartas would tell you to your face, she knew 
well enough upon what ship she sailed, though I 
knew nothing who believed that I had said fare¬ 
well to her for ever. Aye, abandoning her hope of 
royalty and all else, and taking every risk, she em¬ 
barked upon the Hapi , setting some other woman 
tricked out to her likeness to fill her place awhile 
among the company of Nectanebes.” 

“That at least was bold, and I love courage, Kal¬ 
likrates. Yet—what was her purpose?” 

“Is that a question that you should ask me, Lady, 
who know well that great-hearted women will dare 
much for love?” 

“Whether I should ask or not, at least I have the 
answer to my question, Kallikrates. Of a truth, 
you should love and honour one who for your sake 
abandoned all to win what she thought more than 
all, even at the cost of her own shame and the ruin 
of your soul.” 


3 H WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

“I do love and honour her,” he answered hoarsely. 
“When she was still a child I loved her and because 
of that love I slew my brother, believing that on 
reaching womanhood she had come to favour him, 
which, it seems, she did only to draw me closer to 
her.” 

“It would appear, Kallikrates, that this lady 
brings no good fortune to your race, since first she 
works the death of one of you, making a murderer 
of his own brother, and then of that brother fash¬ 
ions an apostate to his faith, yea, a traitor accursed 
of God and man.” 

“It is so,” he said humbly. “Yet she loves me 
much, so much that whether I will it or not, I must 
love her, since if the woman loves enough what can 
the man do but follow on the path she leads? Tell 
me, Prophetess, you who are wise, had you been a 
man and sat in my place there upon the ship Hapi, 
which is a narrow prison, what would you have 
done, being a man I say—as I am?” 

“Perhaps just what you did, Kallikrates, and 
therefore have become accursed, as you are, Kal¬ 
likrates, seeing that the lady was sweet and loving, 
and that man must remain man however great 
the oaths he has sworn to goddesses who do not 
throw their arms about him or kiss him on the 
bps.” 

“Once I thought that a goddess did kiss me on the 
lips, Oracle of Isis, and the memory of that kiss is 
sweet and holy.” 

“Is it so?” 1 answered. “Well, since you are no 
more of our communion, I may tell you now that 
in the shrine at Philae I played the part of the god¬ 
dess and gave that ceremonial kiss.” 

Now he stared at me, reddening, then muttered, 

“Always I guessed it who could not quite believe 


THE TRUTH AND THE TEMPTATION 315 

that a goddess would kiss so sweetly,” and again he 
started like one who would ask a question that his 
lips do not dare to frame. 

I remained silent, watching him, till presently he 
broke out, 

“You tell me that I am accursed, Priestess. Tell 
me also why Isis is so wrath with me?” 

“Did you not swear yourself to her alone and 
break your oath, Kallikrates? Do you not know 
that if women can be jealous, goddesses who are set 
far above them can be more greatly so of those who 
are bound to them in the mystic marriage? Have 
you not heard that to turn from them to a daughter 
of man is to offer them the most terrible of in¬ 
sults?” 

“Isis herself was wed to Osiris, Prophetess, and 
I have heard of priests and priestesses who served 
her who were also wed.” 

“Perchance, Kallikrates, after absolution given 
by one upon whom authority is conferred to strain 
vows for some high end. But who gave you 
authority to marry, you, who indeed are not married 
but only a woman’s lover? Did you mayhap seek it 
from the holy Noot upon the ship Hapi?” 

“Nay,” he answered, “that thought never came 
to me. Or if it came I believed that he would but 
heap curses upon me, or mayhap call down the 
vengeance of Isis upon another. You have heard, 
Prophetess, of what fate sometimes awaits those 
who tempt the feet of priests or priestesses from 
the strait path of their vows.” 

“Aye, Kallikrates, they die by fire, or they starve, 
or they perish shut up in some narrow, airless hole; 
each worship works its own vengeance for that un¬ 
measured crime. Yet you were foolish not to make 
your prayer of Noot, by whom alone it could be 


3 j6 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

granted, since who knows what he would have an¬ 
swered.” 

“Is it too late?” he asked eagerly. “For every 
sin there is forgiveness, why not for mine? Only 
who could grant it; since now I know not where to 
look for Noot, if indeed he lives.” 

“For every sin there is forgiveness, Kallikrates, 
but only at a price. First the sin itself must be laid 
upon the altar as a sacrifice. For dead sins there 
may be forgiveness; for those that live and are con¬ 
tinued there is none, but only stripe added to stripe 
and remorse piled upon remorse. As for Noot it 
chances that he does live and not so far away. 
Would you lay your case before him and hear his 
judgment?” 

“I do not know,” he answered slowly. “Hearken, 
Child of Wisdom. I am in a strange strait. I 
love this lady with my body and am bound to her, 
but it is not so with my spirit. Our souls, 
I think, are far apart. Oh! bear me witness that 
my heart is set on higher things; it would sail into 
far seas unvisited of man, but always there is this 
anchor of the flesh chaining it to its native shore. 
Amenartas does not think thus, she loves to lie 
bound in life’s pleasant harbour, or to wander 
to its green banks, wafted thither by the fitful breath 
of common things, there to deck her brow with the 
wreaths of passion. 

“‘Let Heaven be!’ she says, ‘here is the happy 
earth beneath our feet, and round us murmur the 
waters of delight and I am very beautiful and I 
love you well. If there be gods and they are venge¬ 
ful, at least their hour is not yet. This moment is 
ours to enjoy and to our lips it holds a glorious cup. 
If all the wine be drunk and the cup is shattered, 
at least there will remain with us their memories. 


THE TRUTH AND THE TEMPTATION 317 

What are these gods whom you seek so madly? 
What do they give to man save many curses—deaths 
and separations, sicknesses and sorrows, adding to 
these promises of woe to follow when they have 
worked their worst on earth? Are there any gods 
save those that man fashions from his own terrors? 
man who will not be content with Nature’s food, 
but needs must sour it with an alien poison, and 
even when the sun shines round him, shivers in some 
cold shadow that superstition casts upon his heart.’ 

“Thus she reasons, and such ever were her argu¬ 
ments.” 

“Tell me, Kallikrates, has any child been born 
to you?” 

“Aye, one, a very lovely child; he died of hard¬ 
ships that caused his mother’s milk to fail.” 

“And when the royal Amenartas looked upon him 
dead, did she still reason in this fashion, saying 
that there are no gods and for man there is no hope 
beyond the grave?” 

“Not altogether, since she cursed the gods, and 
who curse that in which they do not believe ? Also 
I remember that she wept and prayed those gods to 
give him back to her while his little heart still beat, 
and like a moth new-crept from its chrysalis, he yet 
hung to the edge of the world, drying his soul’s 
crinkled wings in the dawning lights of Heaven. 
But afterward she forgot and made sacrifice to her 
familiar Spirit, asking it to send her another child, 
which prayer she tells me is in the way of fulfil¬ 
ment.” 

“So Amenartas practices magic like her father 
Nectanebes ?” 

“Aye, Lady, and it would seem not without avail, 
though of this matter of dealing with daemons I 
neither know nor want to know anything. I think 


3 i8 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


it comes to her with her Egyptian blood, also that 
the Pharaoh taught her these arts in her childhood, 
and what is learnt then is never quite forgotten. 
At least I know that when we have been in trouble 
or in danger during our long wanderings, with 
secret rites upon which I do not pry, she calls upon 
some Familiar and that thereafter, in this way or 
in that, our pathway has been straightened. In¬ 
deed she did this just before Philo found us starv- 


mg. 

“As the path of your babe was straightened from 
this world to the next, Kallikrates; as the devious 
path of Pharaoh Nectanebes was straightened to 
a road which led from the throne of Egypt—but 
pray the lady Amenartas to ask of her daemon 
whither it led, since here my wisdom fails me and I 
am not sure. Well, we have spoken long and so 
stands the case, one that might puzzle Thoth him¬ 
self. Is it your pleasure, Kallikrates, to visit the 
divine Noot and take his counsel upon all these mat¬ 
ters? I think that he alone upon the earth can give 
you guidance in them. Yet do as you will.” 

Kallikrates thought a while brooding, then he 
answered, 

“Yes, it is my pleasure. When Amenartas is 
recovered of her sickness, we will go.” 

“The holy Noot is very ancient and the royal 
Amenartas may be sick for a long while. There¬ 
fore might it be wise to go at once, Kallikrates.” 

“Nay, Prophetess, I cannot. Amenartas has 
strange fancies and will not be left alone; she thinks 
that she may be poisoned; indeed that already she 
has tasted poison.” 

“Then let her make richer sacrifices to her daemon 
and pray him to protect her. Certainly they will 
not be without avail since I can swear that here in 


THE TRUTH AND THE TEMPTATION 319 

Kor no poison shall pass her lips, nor any harm come 
to her—save perchance from those gods whom she 
denies. Farewell, Kallikrates.” 

He bowed to me humbly and turned to go, then 
after a step or two came back and said, 

“The gods! The gods! who for you and me in 
their sum are one god, Isis, Queen of Heaven. Tell 
me now, I pray you that are named Wisdom’s 
Daughter, who and what is Isis?” 

I thought a while since the question was a great 
one, a problem that as yet I had never tried to solve 
in words. Then I answered, 

“By my soul I do not know. East and west and 
north and south, men in their millions worship this 
god or that. Yet is there one among them who save 
in dreams or ecstasies has ever seen his god, or if he 
tries to fashion him out before his mortal eyes, can 
do more than carve some effigy of wood or stone?” 

Then I pointed to the veiled statue of Truth be¬ 
hind me, saying, 

“Lo! there is Isis, a beauteous thing with a hidden 
face ruling o’er the world. She is one of Divinity’s 
thousand forms. Aye, she is its essence, frozen to 
the shape we know in this world’s icy air, and having 
a countenance chiselled differently from age to age 
by the changeful thought of man. She lives in every 
soul, yet in no two souls is she the same. She is not, 
yet eternally she is. Invisible, intangible; ever pur¬ 
sued and ever fleeing; never seen and never handled, 
yet she answers prayer and her throne is not in the 
high heavens but in the heart of every creature that 
draws the breath of life. One day we shall behold 
her and not know her. Yet she will know us. Such 
is Isis: formless, yet in every form; dead, yet living 
in all that breathes; a priest-bred phantasy, yet the 
one great truth.” 


320 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


“If Isis be thus, what of the world’s other gods?” 

“They all are Isis and Isis is them all. The thou¬ 
sand gods men worship are but one god wearing 
many faces. Or rather they are two gods, the god 
of good and the god of evil; Horus and Typhon 
who war continually for the souls of things created 
by that Divine, unseen, unknown yet eternally ex¬ 
istent, who reigns beyond the stars alone in fearful 
glory and from his nameless habitation looks down 
both on gods and men, the puppets of his hands; on 
the rolling worlds that bear them, on the seas of 
space between and on the infusing spirit whose op¬ 
eration is the breath of life. So it was in the be¬ 
ginning, is now and shall be eternally. At least, 
Kallikrates, thus I have been taught by the wisdom 
of Noot my Master, and following his path, thus 
my searching soul has learned. Again farewell.” 

He looked at me muttering, 

“Child of Isis, oh! well-named Child of Isis, and 
Wisdom’s Daughter!” and there was awe in his 
eyes and voice. 

Now as ever he is afraid of me, I thought to 
myself, and how can a man come to love that of 
which he is afraid, since love and fear are opposites 
and there is no bridge between them. Oh! why 
did I speak to him of these high things which as yet 
his spirit can scarce weigh or understand? Per¬ 
haps because I am so lonely and having naught 
into which I can pour my mind, no vase of gold and 
alabaster, my deep o’erflowing thought must fill the 
first coarse cup of clay that chance offers to my 
hand, like to the storing of priceless wine in some 
tarry bottle which it will burst. 

Surely I should learn a lesson from yonder 
Amenartas who knows well how to deal with such 
a one as he; one who still stands at thought’s be- 


THE TRUTH AND THE TEMPTATION 321 

ginnings, looking dismayed at the steep upward 
path studded with sharp stones, wreathed in cruel 
thorns, strewn with quicksands and with pitfalls, 
and bordered by precipices from whose gulfs there 
is no return, that path which his feet long to tread 
yet dare not, lacking any guide. 

She leads him by a different road, the road of 
mortal passion, bidding him to cease from staring at 
the stars; bidding him weave crowns of its heavy- 
scented flowers to set upon her brow and his. She 
prattles to him of daily doings, of the joy of yester¬ 
day and the promise of to-morrow, aye, even of the 
food he eats. And all the time she twists the spells 
her father taught her to strong ropes of charm, pur¬ 
posing by these to tie him to her everlastingly. 
Aye, like a gilded spider, that black-browed, boun¬ 
teous-breasted witch meshes him in her magic web, 
binding him fast and yet more fast, till at length he 
lies there staring at her stirless as a mummy in its 
wrappings. 

Thus I mused, clothing my musings finely yet 
knowing in my heart that what prompted them was 
the vilest of all causes and the most common, naught 
indeed but the jealousy of one woman of another. 
For now I knew the truth, it could no more be hid¬ 
den, no longer could I blind my eyes, for it had 
come home to me while he told me his sad story. I 
loved this man; yes, and had always loved him since 
first I looked upon him far away at Philae, or cer¬ 
tainly since, veiled in the wrappings of the goddess, 
I had yielded to Nature’s promptings and kissed 
him upon the lips. 

Oh! I had beaten down that truth, I had buried 
it deep, but now it arose like a ghost from the grave 
and frightened me with its stern, immortal eyes. I 
loved this man and must always love him and no 


322 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


other, and he—he feared yet adored me, as some 
high spirit is adored at its appearing—but love me 
he did not who was set so far above him. 

Yes, I was jealous, if the great can be truly 
jealous of that which is small, for though we were 
wide apart as continent from continent, yet we both 
were women desirous of one man. With my spirit 
I was not jealous, for that I knew must conquer in 
the end, being so strong, so armoured against all 
the shafts of mortal change. Yet with my flesh I 
was jealous. He told me Amenartas had borne a 
son to him; that she hoped to bear another son, and 
—I too yearned to be the mother of his son. For 
is it not true that by a fixed unchanging law, whereas 
the man loves the woman for herself, the woman 
loves the man most of all because he may become 
the father of her child, and thus by the marvel of 
creation, even in the dust preserve her from per¬ 
petual death? 

So, so, let me think. I loved this man and would 
take him for myself and would lift him up and 
would make him my equal, if that could ever be, 
and would teach him glorious things, and would 
show him the secret light that burned within my 
heart, and would guide him onward by the rays 
of my own peculiar star. How could it be brought 
about? Yonder woman, wrapped round with the 
twice-dipped Tyrian purple of kings, which purple, 
be it admitted, she wore well although now she 
lacked a throne whereon to drape it, thought in her 
folly that I had poisoned or would poison her. 
Yes, she knew Ayesha so little that she believed that 
like a Persian eunuch she would stoop to call deadly 
venom to her aid and thereby rid her of a rival. 
Never! If I could not win by my own strength in 
a fair fight for favour, then let me fail, who 



THE TRUTH AND THE TEMPTATION 323 

deserved defeat. Were her life so utterly in my 
hands that I could destroy it with a wish, that wish 
would never form itself within my mind, and cer¬ 
tainly never shape itself to deeds. 

What then could be done? She was right. I 
began to grow old; Time’s acid was gnawing at me 
so that my beauty was no more what it had been. 
Aye, I grew spare and old, while on her still shone 
the full glory of her womanhood. If I would con¬ 
quer I must cease from growing old! 

The Fire of Life! Ah! that Fire of Life which 
gave, it was said, the gift of undying days and of 
perfect youth and loveliness such as Aphrodite her¬ 
self might envy. Who said so? Noot the Master 
who knew all things. Yet Noot had never entered 
into that fire, therefore how did he know, unless it 
were by revelation? At least he had forbidden me 
to taste its cup, perhaps because he was sure that 
it would slay me whom he desired to be his successor 
and to establish here a great kingdom whereof the 
people should accept Isis as their god. 

Still the story might be true, for otherwise why 
did Noot sit in that melancholy hermitage watching 
the pathway to the Fire? There had been other 
tales of the same sort told in the world. Thus the 
old Chaldean legend spoke of a Tree of Life that 
grew in a certain garden whence the parents of 
mankind were driven lest they should eat of it and 
become immortal, which legend was expounded to 
me more fully by the Jewish rabbis in Jerusalem, 
and afterward by Holly the learned man. There¬ 
fore it seemed that there was a Tree of Life, or a 
Fire of Life, jealously guarded of the gods lest the 
children of men should become their equals. And 
I, I knew where that Tree grew, or rather where 
that Fire burned. Yet Noot forbade it to me, and 


324 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


could I disobey Noot my Master, Noot the half 
divine? Well, Noot was very old and near his 
end, and when he died, I, by his own appointment, 
should be the guardian of the Fire, and may not a 
guardian taste of that he guards? 

The gods decreed otherwise, he said. Mayhap, 
but what if in this matter where I had so much to 
gain, I chose to match myself against the gods? If 
the gods give knowledge, can they be wrath with 
those who use it? Yet if they are wrath—well, 
let them be wrath and set their worst against my 
best. Sometimes I grew weary of the gods and all 
the fantastical decrees which they—or their priests 
—heaped upon the heads of the sufferers of this 
earth. Were not life’s curse and death’s doom 
enough to satisfy their appetites, that they must 
load the toilful days between with so much of the 
lead of misery, denying this, denying that; strowing 
the path of men with spikes and crowning their 
heads with thorns? 

If Noot’s tale were true, what then? I should 
enter the Fire, I should emerge ever-glorious, beau¬ 
teous beyond imagining, and ever young, having left 
death far behind me. I should need but to wait a 
while until Amenartas died, and when she was dead, 
or having grown weary of dull life in an ancient 
place, had departed to seek some other. Nay, for 
then in the first case Kallikrates also would be dead 
or ancient, and in the second, certainly she would 
take him with her. 

Ah! now I had it; if I entered the Fire and came 
forth unharmed, Kallikrates must enter it after me, 
for then we should be fitly mated, even if we must 
wait until a little pinch of the sand of time had run 
out from between our fingers. Yet supposing that 
Amenartas chose to enter it also, as being so fond 


THE TRUTH AND THE TEMPTATION 325 

of magic and so determined to cling to that which 
she had won, perchance she might do, would my case 
be bettered? The play would be set upon a larger 
stage, that is all. Well, should I not be the Guard¬ 
ian of the Fire and would it not be in my hand to 
determine who should taste or who should be denied 
its glories? Let that matter decide itself when the 
hour came, since the decision would be such as I and 
not as Amenartas willed. 

Here then was my plan. And yet—one thought 
more. What if the Fire slew? If so, had I found 
life so sweet that I should be afraid to die, as in 
any case within some few years die I must? Let 
me take my chance of death who was ready to fade 
away into a land where Kallikrates and Amenartas 
and all earthly miseries and all baulked desires and 
ambitions, and all hopes and fears and sufferings 
must be forgot. Only would they be forgot? Per¬ 
chance there they might be remembered and pierce 
the soul eternally with an even keener edge. Noot 
believed that we were made of an immortal stuff, 
and so at heart did I. It must be risked. What 
is life but a long risk, and why should we fear to add 
to its tremendous count? I at least did not fear. 

So all was summed up and balanced. Yet from 
my reckoning I left out the largest charge, that 
which Fate makes against those who play at dice 
with the Unknown. The gods may smile at cour¬ 
age and pass a venture by, but who can tell how 
blind Fate will avenge the forcing of his rule de¬ 
creed and the rape of knowledge from his secret 
store ? 

This problem I forgot, I who was doomed to 
learn its answer. 


CHAPTER XXII 
Beware ! 

The days went by and it was not long before Ame- 
nartas recovered from her sickness, long at least be¬ 
fore she would appear out of the lodging, the best 
at our command, which had been given to her. It 
was an ancient, ruined house near to the temple, that 
doubtless once had been a splendid place inhabited 
by forgotten nobles of old Kor. There were gar¬ 
dens round it, or rather what had been gardens, 
for now these were much overgrown, and in their 
shelter Amenartas hid herself and wandered, never 
leaving them to visit me. 

Yet Kallikrates came often, though being un¬ 
shriven and thrust out of our community by his own 
act, he did not share in the worship of the goddess. 
Often I would see him as our procession wound in 
and out of the columns of the great unroofed temple 
hall, standing afar oh and gazing at it wistfully. 
Aye, and once when it passed near to him, I saw too, 
that there were tears upon his face, noting which my 
heart sorrowed for him who was outcast for a 
woman’s sake. 

When these ceremonies were ended he would visit 
me in my chambers where we talked long and of 
many things. I asked him why the Princess Ame¬ 
nartas, who it seemed was recovered of her fever 
since now she could wander in her garden ground, 
laid no offering on the altar of the goddess. He 
answered, 


326 


BEWARE! 


327 


“Because she will have naught to do with the gods 
of Egypt who, she says, if they are at all, have ever 
been the enemies of her House and have dragged 
her father, the Pharaoh Nectanebes, from his 
throne and hurled him forth, a discrowned fugitive, 
to perish amidst strangers.” 

“Upon those who follow after spells and affront 
the gods, the gods will be avenged, Kallikrates. 
For every sin there is forgiveness, save for that of 
the denial of Divinity, and of the setting of Evil in 
its place to be propitiated by the arts of sorcerers. 
Moreover, did not this Nectanebes offer deadly in¬ 
sult to the Queen of Heaven when he gave me, her 
servant and seeress, to be a slave to Tenes, the wor¬ 
shipper of her worst of foes, Baal and Ashtoreth 
and Moloch, that Tenes from whose grip you 
helped to save me, Kallikrates?” 

“It is so,” he answered sadly. 

“And now,” I went on, “the daughter follows in 
the father’s steps. Oh! I am sure that yonder she 
spells out her charms, aiming her enchantments at 
my heart, whence they fall back harmless, as the 
bone-tipped arrows of wild men fall from a shield 
of Syrian bronze.” 

He hung his head who knew well that my words 
were true, and muttered, 

“Alas! she loves you not, Lady, who from the 
first hour that she set her eyes upon you, as often 
she has told me, feared and hated you, because, she 
says, her spirit warns and has ever warned her that 
you will bring disaster upon her head and call up 
Death to keep her company.” 

“At least he would be a better guest, Kallikrates, 
than the daemon that, like her father, she harbours 
in her breast. Oh! unhappy man, my heart bleeds 
for you, who are linked to this poisoned loveliness 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


328 

that divorces you from hope and charity; to this 
royal infidel who in the end will bind your spirit’s 
wings and drag you down into her own darkness. 
For your soul’s sake I pray you, Kallikrates, seek 
out the holy Noot, confess your sins and hear his 
counsel, since this matter is beyond my strength and 
I have none to give. Seek him soon, nay, at once, 
ere perchance it be too late, for I learn that he 
grows feeble.” 

“That is my great desire, Priestess, yet how can 
I, who know not where to find him?” 

“I will be your guide, Kallikrates. When the sun 
rises on the second day from now we will march to 
visit Noot in his secret dwelling.” 

“I will be ready,” he answered and left me. 

On the morrow he came again and we spoke to¬ 
gether of the state of Kor and of my plans for 
bettering it; also of certain savages who threatened 
us from without, man-eating tribes that it seemed 
were descended from the apostates who rejecting 
the worship of Truth or Lulala, as Isis was named 
by them in those times, had adopted that of a devil 
that, as they declared, inhabited the sun or some 
ill-omened star. 

Kallikrates listened, he who at bottom was ever 
a soldier, for the tale awoke all his general’s craft 
and courage. As a great captain does, he balanced 
the reasons for or against defence, for or against at¬ 
tack. He questioned me as to the numbers of my 
people and of their foes, as to their arms, and many 
other matters that have to do with war. Then hav¬ 
ing learned all that I could tell him, he set out the 
plan which he judged to be the best in our conditions, 
talking of it long and eagerly, he who for a while 
had forgot his woes. I listened to him, watching 
his bright and splendid face which seemed as that 


BEWARE! 


329 


of the Sun-god of the Greeks. Speaking a word here 
and a word there, I listened, thinking to myself the 
while that if only he and I, he with his skill and 
courage and I with my wisdom, could guide the des¬ 
tinies of Kor, before our day was done we would 
drive them like the chariots of a conquering king 
from Egypt’s borders to these of the uttermost 
southern seas, setting nation after nation beneath 
our feet, and building up such an empire as Libya 
had never known. 

What had I dreamed? To Egypt’s borders? 
Why should we stop at her borders? Why should 
we not hurl forth the foul Persian swarms and be 
crowned monarchs of the world at Susa and at 
Thebes? Yet it would take time, and life is 
short, and yonder, not so far away, burned the Fire 
of Immortality, and I, I held the key to its prison 
house, or soon should hold it when Noot had sought 
his rest. Almost these burning thoughts, these high 
ambitions, in whose fulfilment lay the seeds of peace 
attained through war and the promise of the wel¬ 
fare of the earth, burst from my lips in a torrent 
of hot words which I knew well would set his soul 
aflame. But I, Ayesha, refrained myself from 
myself, I wrapped myself in silence, I said 
to myself, “Wait, wait, the ripe hour has not 
dawned.” 

He rose to depart, then turned and said, 

“At the sunrise I will be here, or rather,” he 
added doubtfully, “we will be here, since Amenartas 
desires to accompany us upon this journey to visit 
the holy Noot.” 

“By whom I trust she will be well received, seeing 
the manner in which she parted from him upon the 
ship Hapi. Well, so be it; I rejoice to learn that 
the royal Amenartas again finds herself prepared 


330 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


to travel. Yet remind her, Kallikrates, that the 
road we go is rough and dangerous.” 

“She shall be told, yet it will serve little, since 
who can turn Amenartas from her ends? Not I, 
be sure; nor could her father before me, nor any 
living man.” 

“Nay, nor any god, Kallikrates, since the ends 
she follows are those of neither man nor god, but 
of something that stands beyond them both, as was 
the case of Pharaoh Nectanebes who begot her. 
Each of us shoots at his chosen mark, Kallikrates, 
you at yours, I at mine, and Amenartas at her 
own; therefore what right have we to judge 
of one another’s archery? Let her come to visit 
Noot and I pray that she may return the hap- 
pier. 

Next morning ere the dawn I stood at the temple 
porch awaiting Philo and the litters. Came Ame¬ 
nartas cloaked heavily, for the air was cold, yet 
splendid even in those wrappings. 

“Greeting, Wisdom’s Child,” she said, bowing 
in her courtlike fashion. “I learn that you and my 
husband would make some strange journey, and 
therefore, as a wife should, I accompany him.” 

“That is so, royal Lady, though I knew not that 
you were wed to the lord Kallikrates.” 

“What is marriage?” she asked. “Is it certain 
words mumbled before an altar and a priest, a thing 
of witnessed ceremony, or is it the union of the 
heart and flesh according to Nature’s custom and 
decree? But let that pass. Where my lord goes, 
there I accompany him.” 

“None forbids you, O Lady of Egypt.” 

“True, Prophetess. Yet my own heart forbids 
me. Know that but last night I was haunted by a 


BEWARE! 


33 i 


very evil dream. It seemed to me that my father 
Nectanebes stood before me in a sable robe that was 
shot through with threads of fire. He spoke to me 
saying: ‘Daughter, beware of that witch who goes 
on a dreadful quest, taking with her one who is dear 
to you. At the end of that quest lies Doom for her, 
for him, for you, though each of these dooms be 
different!’ ” 

“It may be so, Princess,” I answered coldly. 
“Then accompany me not and keep Kallikrates at 
your side.” 

“That I cannot do,” she said in a sullen voice, 
“since now for the first time he will not listen to my 
pleading and crosses my will. You have laid your 
charm upon him as on others in the past, and where 
you lead, he follows.” 

“Mayhap as a slave follows one who can show 
him where he may loose his chains! But let us not 
bandy words, royal Amenartas. I depart. Fol¬ 
low if you will, or bide behind, one or both of you. 
See, here comes Kallikrates; agree together as it 
pleases you.” 

She turned and met him in the ruins of the ancient 
pylon, where they debated together in words I could 
not hear. Once she seemed to conquer, for both 
of them walked a little way toward their own home. 
Then Kallikrates swung round upon his heel and 
came back to me who stood by the litters. She 
hesitated awhile, ah! what mighty issues hung upon 
this trembling of the balance of her mind, but in the 
end she followed him. 

After this, without more speech we entered the 
litters and began our journey. 

As we went across the misty plain it came home to 
me, as many a time it has done during the long 
centuries that followed, how often the great de- 


332 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


pends upon the little. Another bitter word from 
Amenartas, a trifle less of courage in Kallikrates, 
and how differently would Fate have fashioned the 
destinies of every one of us. For be it remembered 
that the choice lay with these two; I did naught save 
wait upon their wills. Hlad they so desired, never 
need they have entered those litters. Alone I 
should have departed; alone I should have looked 
upon the Fire and drunk of that Cup of Life, or 
perchance, as is probable, I should have left it un¬ 
tasted and gone down my way to death after the 
common fashion of mankind. But it was not so 
decreed; of their own desire they took the path to 
doom, though perchance that desire was shaped by 
some Strength above their own. 

We reached the precipice and climbed it, Amenar¬ 
tas, Kallikrates, Philo, and I. We passed the cave 
by the light of lanterns, and we came to the trem¬ 
bling spur of rock that reaches out like a great 
needle thrust through the robe of darkness. When 
they looked upon it, Kallikrates and Amenartas 
shivered and drew back, seeing which I rejoiced, for 
it is true that at the moment I found no more heart 
for this adventure. 

“Stay where you are,” I cried, “and wait. I go 
to visit the holy Noot. I will return again, and 
if I return not within a round of the sun, then make 
your way back to Kor and there abide. Or if it 
pleases you, seek the coast-land and the harbour 
of the Ethiopian’s Head and depart with the help 
of Philo, if still he lives, or if not, otherwise. Fare¬ 
well! I go.” 

“Nay,” cried Kallikrates, “whither you lead, 
Prophetess, thither I follow.” 

“If so,” said Amenartas, laughing in her royal 


BEWARE! 


333 

fashion, “you will not follow alone. What! Shall 
I not dare that which my lord can dare? Is this 
the first peril in which we twain have stood side 
by side? If it be the last, what of it?” 

So we started down the spur, Philo coming at 
the end of our line, and though with many hazards, 
for once the brain of Amenartas swam so that 
almost she fell, reached its point in safety. Here 
we waited crouched upon the rough rock and cling¬ 
ing to it with our hands, lest its quick throbbing 
should hurl us into the gulf, or the fierce gusts 
should sweep us away like autumn leaves. 

At length at the appointed moment the sword¬ 
like sunset ray appeared, striking full upon us 
and showing that the frail bridge of boards was 
still in the place, for it swayed and moved like the 
deck of a ship at sea. 

“Be bold and follow,” I cried, “since he who 
hesitates is doomed,” and instantly I stepped 
across that perilous plank and took my stand 
upon the swaying stone beyond. 

For a moment Kallikrates stood doubtful, as 
well he might, but Amenartas pushed past him 
and with a laugh crossed it as though she would 
teach me that I was not the only one to whom 
the gods had given courage. I caught her by 
the hand. Then Kallikrates followed because he 
must, and she caught him by the hand and after 
him Philo, the seaman, calmly enough, so that now 
all four of us stood together on the stone. 

“Glad enough am I to be here, Prophetess,” 
cried Kallikrates, though in that wailing wind his 
voice reached me only as a whisper. “Yet, I know 
not why, it comes into my mind that I go upon my 
last journey.” 

I made no answer because his fateful words 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


334 

chilled my heart and choked my voice; only I 
looked at his face and noted that it was white as 
ice even in the red light of the ray and that his large 
eyes shone as though with the fires of fever. 

Taking Kallikrates by the hand and motioning 
to Philo to do likewise with Amenartas, I led 
him to the little rough-hewn stair. By this stair we 
descended into the sheltered place that was in front 
of the hermitage of Noot and rejoiced was I to find 
myself and the others out of the reach of those rag¬ 
ing winds and to see that lights burned within the 
cave beyond. 

“Bide here, all of you,” I said. “I will enter 
the cave and prepare the holy Noot for your 
coming.” 

I entered the place thinking to find that strange 
dwarf who was Noot's servant, but nowhere could 
he be seen. Yet I was sure that he must be near, 
since on the rough rock table were set food and 
wooden platters, four platters as though awaiting 
four guests. I thought to myself that doubtless 
the Master had seen us creeping down the spur, 
or perchance his spirit had warned him of our 
coming—who could say? 

I gazed about me to find Noot, and at length in 
the deep shadow, out of reach of the lamp’s rays, 
I perceived him kneeling before that image of Isis 
whereof I have told, and wrapt in earnest prayer. 
I drew near and waited a while who did not dare to 
break in upon his orisons. Still he did not stir or 
look up. So quiet was he that he might have been 
carved in ivory. I bent forward, examining his 
face. Lo! his eyes were fixed and open and his jaw 
had fallen. 

Noot was dead! 

“My Master, my most beloved Master! Too 



BEWARE! 


335 


late, too late!” I moaned, and bending down kissed 
him on his brow of ice. 

Then I began to think and swiftly. Had he not 
warned me when I bade him farewell a while before 
that we spoke together for the last time? Where 
was my faith who had forgotten that the prophecies 
of Noot were always true? So he had gone to his 
rest in the bosom of Osiris, and on me had fallen 
his mantle. I, Ayesha, was the guardian cf the 
Fire of Life whereof alone I knew the secrets 
and held the key! The knowledge struck me like 
a blow; I trembled and sank to the ground. I 
think that for a little while I swooned and in that 
swoon strange dreams took hold of me, half- 
remembered dreams, dreams not to be written. 

Presently I rose and going to the doorway sum¬ 
moned the others, who stood there huddled to¬ 
gether like sheep before a storm. 

“Enter,” I said, and they obeyed. “Now be 
seated and eat,” I went on, pointing to the table 
on which the food was ready. 

“Where is the master of the feast, Prophetess? 
Where is the holy Noot whom we have walked this 
fearful road to see?” asked Kallikrates, staring 
about him. 

“Yonder,” I answered, pointing to the depths 
of the shadow, “yonder—dead and cold. You 
tarried too long at Kor, Kallikrates. Now you 
must seek his counsel and his absolution at an¬ 
other table—that of Osiris.” 

Thus I spoke, for something inspired the words, 
yet ere they had left my lips I could have bitten 
out the tongue that shaped them. Was this the 
place to talk of the Table of Osiris to the man 
I loved? 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


336 

They went to that dark nook where the little 
sacred statue looked down upon its quiet worship¬ 
per. They stared in silence; they returned, Philo 
muttering prayers, Kallikrates wringing his hands, 
for he had loved and honoured Noot above any 
man that lived. Also—I read the question in his 
mind—to whom now should he confess his sins? 
Who now could loose their burden? 

Only Amenartas pondered a space; then she spoke 
with a slow and meaning smile, saying, 

“Perchance, my lord, it is as well that this old 
high-priest has gone to discover whether he 
dreamed true dreams for so many years upon the 
earth. I know not what you would have said to 
him, yet I can guess that it boded but little good 
to me, your wife, for so I am, whatever yonder 
priestess may tell you, who also bodes little good 
either to me or to you, my lord Kallikrates. Well, 
he is dead and even Wisdom’s Daughter there 
cannot bring him back to life. So let us rest a 
while and eat, and then return by that dread road 
which we have trodden, ere our strength and spirit 
fail us.” 

“That you may not do, Princess Amenartas, un¬ 
til the sunset comes again and once more the red 
ray shows us where to set our feet, for to attempt 
it sooner is to die,” 1 answered, and went on: 

“Hearken. By the death of this holy man, or 
half-god, I have become the keeper of a certain 
treasure over which he watched. It is hidden deep 
in the bowels of the earth beneath us. I must go 
to visit it and see that it is safe. This I shall do 
presently. Bide you here, if you will, till I return, 
and if I return not, wait till the ray strikes upon 
the point of rock, cross the bridge, climb the spur, 
and flee whither ye will. Philo can guide you.” 



BEWARE! 


337 

“Not so, Child of Isis,” said Philo. “My oath 
and duty are to you, not to this pair. Whither you 
go, I follow to the end.” 

“I follow also,” said Kallikrates, “who would not 
be left in this darksome place companied by death.” 

“Yet it might be wiser, Kallikrates,” I answered, 
“since who can escape that company of death of 
which you speak?” for again dreadful and ominous 
words rushed unbidden from my heart. 

“I care not. I go,” he said almost sullenly. 

“Then I go also,” broke in Amenartas. “This 
Prophetess doubtless is wise and holy, yet I may 
be pardoned if I choose to share her fellowship 
with you upon a road unknown. Perchance it has 
another gate elsewhere that I might never find,” 
she added in bitter jest. 

Oh! had this fool but known that her coarse 
stabs at me did but harden the heart which she 
sought to pierce, and drive it whither she did not 
desire. 

“As you will,” I answered. “Now eat and rest till 
the hour of departure comes and I summon you.” 

So they ate, if not much, though for my part I 
touched no food, and laid them down in the inner 
cave as best they might, and there slept, or did 
not sleep. But I, I watched the hours away by the 
dead shell of the holy Noot, striving to commune 
with his spirit which I knew to be near to me. Yet 
it gave no answer to all my questions. Or at least 
there came one only which again and again seemed 
to shape itself to a single word, 

“Beware !” 

Strange, thought I to myself, that the prophet 
Noot my Master, who loved me better than any 
other living upon the earth, and knew the most of 
my lonely, wayward heart, now that he was justified 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


338 

and made perfect, as doubtless he must be, if such 
a lot can be attained by man, should find no more 
to say to me than this one word, which indeed 
while in the flesh often he had said before. There¬ 
fore it seemed that in the flesh and out of it his 
counsel was the same; one certainly that I should 
take. 

What did it mean? That I should look no 
more upon the Fire; that I should rise up and get 
me back to Kor and there play such parts as I could 
compass, and wither and grow old and die, nurtur¬ 
ing perchance the children of Kallikrates and Ame- 
nartas, should they seek the Shades before me; 
or, growing weary of barbarians and ruins, flee away 
from Kor to find the fellowship of instructed men. 

That is what this counsel meant. Well, what 
did that of my own heart promise me? Perhaps 
a swift death and after it punishment in some dim 
land beyond, because I had disobeyed the shadowy 
cautionings of the holy Noot and dared to make 
trial of a new Strength, against which as yet no man 
had matched himself. Or perhaps a glory greater 
than any man had ever dreamed, and a power far 
above that of emperors and a life longer than that 
of mountains. Also more—more, the love that I 
desired, to me a greater guerdon than all these 
boons added together and multiplied by the snow¬ 
flakes upon Lebanon or the sands of the seashore. 
Surely, come what might of it, I would take my own 
counsel and let the other be. 

The hour came; although I saw it not, I knew 
that it was that of dawn in the world without. I 
arose, I summoned the others; we departed down 
that darksome path of which I have written, climb¬ 
ing from rock to rock in the bowels of the earth 
by the dim light of the lanterns which we bore. 


BEWARE! 


339 


We came to the outer cavern; we passed the pas¬ 
sage and reached the second cavern, halting at the 
mouth of another passage through which at in¬ 
tervals shot flickerings of light, and from time to 
time sounds as of muttering thunder reached our 
ears. 

“The treasure on which I would look lies yonder. 
Bide ye here,” I said. 

“Nay,” answered Kallikrates, “now as before 
I follow.” 

“Where my lord goes there go I also,” said 
Amenartas. 

Only Philo, the cautious Greek, bowed his head 
and answered, 

“I obey. I bide here. If I am needed, summon 
me, O Child of Isis. 

“Good,” I cried, who at that moment thought 
little of Philo and his fate, though it is true that, 
cunning as he might be, I loved him well. 

Then I went on and with me went Kallikrates and 
Amenartas. 


CHAPTER XXIII 
The Doom of the Fire 

We stood in the third cave that was carpeted with 
white sand and alive with rosy light. Making a 
dark stain upon that snowy sand was a black patch 
of dust. I knew it again; when last I had seen it, 
it bore the withered shape of one long dead. The 
rolling many-coloured fire approached from afar; 
its muttering grew to a roar, its roar grew to such 
a thunder as shakes the mountain peaks and splits 
the walls of citadels. It appeared, blazing with 
a thousand lights; for a while it hovered, twisting 
like a spun top. Then it departed upon its eternal 
round in the unknown entrails of the earth, and 
the tumult sank to silence. 

Kallikrates, terrified, flung himself upon his face; 
even the proud Amenartas fell to her knees, cover¬ 
ing her eyes with her hands: only I stood erect and 
laughed, I who knew that I was betrothed to that 
fire and that it ill became the bride-to-be to shrink 
from her promised lord. 

Kallikrates rose, asking, 

“Where is the treasure which you seek, Prophet¬ 
ess? If it be hidden here, in this awful house of 
a living god, look on it swiftly, and let us begone. 
I, a mortal man, am terrified.” 

“As well you may be,” broke in Amenartas, 
“since such wizardries as these have not been told 
of in the earth. I say it, who know something 
of wizardries, and like my father have stood face 

340 


THE DOOM OF THE FIRE 341 

to face with spirits summoned from the Under¬ 
world, giving them word for word of power.” 

My treasure lies in the red heart of yonder 
raging flame, and presently I go to pluck it thence,” 
I answered in a quiet voice. “Whether I shall re¬ 
turn I do not know. Perchance I shall abide in the 
fire and be borne away upon its wings. Stay if you 
will, or if you will, while there is yet time, depart, 
but trouble me no more with words, who must 
steel my soul to its last trial.” 

They stared at me, both of them, and remained 
silent. 

For a space I stood still pondering. It seemed 
to me that I was the plaything of two great 
Strengths that dragged me forward, that dragged 
me back. The spirit of the Fire cried, 

“Come, O Divine! Come, be made perfect, and 
queen it in this red heart of mine. Come, drink 
of that full cup of mysteries which no mortal lips 
have drained. Come, see those things that are 
hidden from mortal eyes. Come, taste of joys 
wherewith no mortal heart has ever throbbed. 
Haste, haste to the fiery bridal and in the glory of 
my kiss learn what delight can be. Oh! doubt no 
more but take Faith by the hand and let her lead 
thee home. Doubt no more! Be brave, lay down 
mortality: put on the spirit and as a spirit sit 
enthroned beyond the touch of time and with im¬ 
mortal eyes, robed in eternal majesty, watch the 
generations pass, marching with sad feet from 
darkness into darkness. Behold there he stands 
who is appointed to thee, who was thine from the 
beginning, who shall be thine until the end of ends. 
Thy new-born loveliness shall chain him fast and 
he shall grow drunken in the breath of thy perfumed 
sighs who for ever and for ever and for ever shall 


342 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

be thy very own, turning the winter of thy widowed 
heart to summer of perpetual joy.” 

Thus spake the spirit of the Flame, but to it 
there answered another spirit that wore the shape 
of Noot, yea, of Noot grown stern and terrible. 

“Turn back, O Wisdom’s Daughter, ere thou art 
wrapped in the robe of madness and repentance 
comes too late,” it seemed to say. “Always the 
tempter tempts and when bribe after bribe is 
scorned, at last he pours his richest jewels at the feet 
of her whom he would win. Woe, woe to her who, 
charmed of their false glitter, clasps them upon 
brow and breast, for there they shall change to 
scorpions and through the living flesh gnaw to the 
brain and heart within. Departing, have I not set 
thee to watch the Fire and wilt thou steal the Fire, 
therewith to make thyself a god? Do so and this 
I swear to thee: that the godhead which thou shalt 
put on will be that of hell. Thy love shall be 
snatched away; undying, through all the earth, 
through all the stars, thou shalt follow after him 
and never find, or, if thou findest, it will be but to 
lose again. Dost thou dare to wrest thy destiny 
out of the hand of Fate and fashion it to thy de¬ 
sire with the instrument of thy blind and petty will? 
Do so, and daemons shall possess it that from age 
to age shall drive thee on, torn by the furies of 
remorse, choked with bitter, unavailing tears, frozen 
by the icy blasts of sorrow; desolate, alone, un¬ 
friended, till at last thou standest before the Judg¬ 
ment-seat hearkening with bowed head to a doom 
that can never be undone. Daughter of Wisdom, 
art thou sunk so low that thou wilt forget thine 
oaths and break thy trust to rob another woman of 
her lover?” 

Those visions passed and I grasped denial’s 


THE DOOM OF THE FIRE 


343 

robes. I would not do this thing. I would live 
out my life upon the earth, I would die—oh! might 
it be soon—to pass to whatever place had been 
prepared for me, or to sink into the deep abysm of 
that rich and boundless sleep which no dreams 
haunt. 

Aye! renouncing joy and renounced of hope, al¬ 
ready I turned to go and climb my upward path back 
to the bitter world. 

Then, from far, far away came the faint music 
of the chant of the advancing god of Fire. Low 
and sweet it sang at first, soft as a mother’s lullaby, 
and lo! I dreamed of happy childhood’s day. It 
swelled and grew and now I had entered into 
womanhood and strange, uncomprehended longings 
companioned me. It took a fiercer note and I be¬ 
thought me of the beating of the hoofs of horses 
as, mounted on my crested stallion, I rushed across 
the desert like the wind. Louder yet, and behold! 
once more I was in the battle at my father’s side; 
behind me the wild tribesmen surged and shouted; 
in front of me my foes were beaten down to death. 
Ah! bright flashed my javelin, ah! free flowed my 
hair among the flapping pennons. “The Daughter 
of Yarab! Follow the daughter of Yarab!” cried 
the thousands of my kin, and on we went, like sun- 
loosed snows down mountains, on upon the mar¬ 
shalled host beneath. We broke them, for who could 
stand before the Daughter of Yarab and her kin? 
We trampled them, Egyptian and Syrian and Mede 
and the men from Chittim’s Isle; down they went 
before that wild charge, and see! my bright spear 
was red. 

Deeper yet and more solemn grew that mighty 
music. Now I was alone in the wilderness be¬ 
neath the stars, and from the stars knowledge and 


344 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


beauty fell upon my heart like dew. Now I was 
a ruler of men, and kings who would be my lovers 
bent at my feet and were the puppets of my hands. 
I cast them down and broke them; I saw Sidon 
go up in flames and filled my soul with vengeance. 
Hark! It is the footstep of the goddess, the Queen 
of Heaven sets her kiss upon my brow; she names 
me Daughter, her Appointed. Knowledge is mine, 
out of my lips flow prophecies, a spirit guides my 
feet. I, I hold my own against the Persian, when 
all else have fled I cast him from his throne. I 
give his pomp to the tongues of Fire. Oh! how 
they cry, those mockers of Egypt’s gods, as I watch 
them scorch and perish. 

I am lonely. Where is my love? I wend to¬ 
ward the grave and none are born of me. I seek 
my love. “There stands thy love—not far away, 
but at thy side. Take him, take him, take him!” 
Thus said the Fire. 

Now its voice is the voice of trumpets that blare 
and echo around the hills. They call, those trum¬ 
pets call: “Where is the captain of our hosts? 
Where is our Queen? Come forth, O Queen, 
crowned with wisdom, diademed with power, hold¬ 
ing in thine hand the gift of days. No longer would 
we be left leaderless, we who would march to vic¬ 
tory and hold the world in thrall.” 

The King of Fire is at hand. He opens the gate¬ 
ways of the dark. Behind him march the legions: 
he comes with splendour, he comes with glory, he 
comes to take his bride. “Unrobe, unrobe! Pre¬ 
pare thyself, O Bride! The King of Fire calls!” 

I unloosed my garments, I unbound my hair 
that covered me like to a sable robe. 

“Art mad?” cried the Greek, Kallikrates, wring¬ 
ing his hands. 


THE DOOM OF THE FIRE 345 

Art mad? echoed the royal Amenartas with 
a slow smile as she waited to see mine end. 

“Nay, I am wise,” I answered back, “I who 
weary of tame days and common things, I who 
seek death or triumph.” 

I ran. I stood in the pathway of the Fire. It 
saw; it stretched out its arms to me. Lo! it 
wrapped me round and in my ears I heard the shout¬ 
ings of the stars. 

Oh ! what was this ? I did not burn. The blood 
of the gods flowed through my veins. The soul 
within me became as a lighted torch. The Fire 
possessed me, I was the Fire’s and in a dread com¬ 
munion the Fire was mine. By that lit torch of 
my heart I saw many visions; veils rolled up before 
my eyes revealing glory after glory, glories that 
cannot be told. Death shrank away from before 
my feet; pale and ashamed he shrank away. Pain 
departed, weakness was done. I stood the Queen 
of all things human. 

Lo! mirrored in that Fire as in water I saw my¬ 
self, a shape of loveliness celestial. Could this 
form be the form of woman? Could those orbs 
divine be a woman’s eyes? 

Then a great silence and in the silence a silvery 
tinkling sound that I knew well—the sound of the 
laughter of Aphrodite! 

The pillar of flame had rolled away, its thousand 
blinding lights had ceased to shine, and there I stood 
triumphant, conquering, never to be conquered. I 
came forth speaking with a voice of music, know¬ 
ing that I had inherited another soul. What now 
to me was Isis or any other goddess, to me who 
stood victorious, the equal of them all? Oh! I 
saw now that Isis was but Nature and henceforth 
Nature was my slave. I thought no more of sin 


346 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

or of repentance, I who from this day forth would 
fashion my own laws and be to myself a judge. 
That which I desired, that I would take. That 
which was hateful to me that would I cast away. 
Yea! I was Nature’s very self. I felt all her springs 
stirring in my blood; it glowed with the heats of 
all her summers. I was kind with the kindness 
of her fruitful autumns; I was terrible with her 
winter wrath. 

Look! There stood the man whom I desired. 
Somewhat coarse and poor he seemed to me; I 
smelt death upon him. To be my mate he must be 
my equal; he too must taste of the Fire; then we 
would talk of love. As he was, my love was not 
for him, nay, it would destroy him as the lightning 
blasts. 

“Look on me, Kallikrates,” I cried, “and tell me, 
in all your days have you seen aught so fair?” 

“Fair, yes, fair!” he gasped, “but terrible in 
beauty. No woman, no woman! A very spirit. 
Oh! let me shut mine eyes. Let me flee!” 

“Be still and wait,” I answered, “for soon I 
shall show you how they may be opened. Look 
on me, Daughter of Pharaoh, and tell me, has that 
stamp of age of which you spoke to me not long 
ago departed from my face and form, or is it yet 
apparent?” 

“I look,” she answered, still bold, “and I see be¬ 
fore me no child of man, but a very witch. Away 
from us, accursed witch! Clothe yourself, shame¬ 
less one, and begone, or let us begone, leaving you 
to commune with your witch’s fire.” 

I cast my robes around me and oh! they hung 
royally. Then once more I turned to Kallikrates, 
considering him. As I looked I became aware that 
a great change had fallen upon me. I was no 


THE DOOM OF THE FIRE 


347 


longer the Ayesha of old days. That Ayesha had 
been spirit-driven; her soul had aspired to the 
heavens; it glistened with the dews of purity. True, 
I had loved this man, little at the first, and more 
a hundred times after Noot had suffered me to look 
upon the Fire, since with the sight and the sound 
and the odours of it the great change began. 

That Ayesha was one who dreamed of heavenly 
things; one with whom prayer was a constant habit 
of the mind; yes, all her thoughts were mixed with 
the leaven of prayer, so that the humblest deed and 
the most common of imaginings were by it sanc¬ 
tified! She knew that here was not her home, but 
that far away and out of sight, beyond the seas and 
mountains of the world, her everlasting house rose 
white and stately and that with her earthly toil and 
sufferings she built it stone by stone, filling its 
halls and porticoes with ivory statues of the gods, 
making it pure with clouds of incense that their per¬ 
fected souls brooding on her soul drew from it, as at 
dawn the sun draws mist from rivers. 

With grief and toil, with bleeding feet; buffeted 
by the winds of circumstance, wet with the rain 
of tears, washed by the waters of repentance, she 
climbed the stony upward path that led to the Peak 
of Peace. She believed in she knew not what, for 
always to her those gods were man-shaped symbols. 
Still day and night she struggled on, lit by the rays 
of the lamp of faith, sure that in the end the veils 
would be withdrawn and that she would look upon 
the Face Divine and hear its voice of welcome. She 
was obedient to the Law; she knew that time was 
not her own and that of every moment she must 
give account. Aye, she was in the way of holi¬ 
ness and before her shone the golden guerdons of 
redemption. 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


348 

But now. What was Ayesha now when she had 
known the embrace of the Spirit of Fire, when she 
had dared the deed and wrung the secret from his 
burning heart? Aye, when on the earth she had 
attained to immortality, since even then a voice 
cried in her ears: 

“Behold! thou shalt not die. Behold while the 
world lives, with it thou shalt live also, because 
thou hast drunk of the wine of Earth’s primeval 
Soul that cannot be spilled until its mighty fabric is 
dissolved into the nothingness whence it sprang!’’ 

What was she now? She was that very Earth. 
She was that Soul poured into the white vase of a 
woman’s form; aye, she was its essence. Its light¬ 
nings and its hurricanes lay chained within her, ready 
to leap out when she was wrath, and who could 
abide before their strength? She knew all Earth’s 
glory as alone it swung through space, kissed of the 
light of the Sun its father, or dreaming in the arms 
of darkness. The planets were her sisters, the 
bright, blazing stars acknowledged her as kin. Aye; 
with this mother-world she symbolled she was num¬ 
bered among the multitude of that hierarchy of 
heaven. 

Nor was this all, for in her reigned and glowed 
every power and passion of the Earth. Thence¬ 
forth all things were at her command, but, like that 
Earth, she was alone and could no more speak with 
Heaven ! 

In a flash, in a twinkling, all this mighty truth 
came home to me, and with it other truths. I did 
not doubt, I did not dream, I knew, I knew, I knew! 

There stood the man and I would take him. He 
was wed according to Nature’s law, and now I 
owned no other. But what of that? The wine 
that I desired I would drink. I would mate me as 


THE DOOM OF THE FIRE 


349 


the wild things mated, by strength and capture, 
since I was very strong and who could stand against 
my might? I, the reborn Ayesha, had commanded. 
It should be done. 

“Kallikrates,” I said in my new voice of honeyed 
sweetness, “behold your spouse, one of whom you 
need not be ashamed. Make ready, Kallikrates. 
Go stand in the path of the Fire when it returns, 
and then let us hence to reign eternally.” 

“What, Witch,” cried Amenartas, “would you 
rob me of my lord? It shall not be. If you are 
mighty, so am I, although I remain a woman. 
Kallikrates, look on me, your wife, she who has 
borne your child, that lost child who binds us yet with 
bonds that may not be broken. Have done with 
this fair daemon ere she enchant you. Away! Away 
from this haunted, mocking hell.” 

“I come. Surely I come,” said Kallikrates, 
glancing at me fearfully. “I am afraid of her, and 
of that fire I will have none. Surely it is Set him¬ 
self wrapped about with flames.” 

“Nay, you go not, Kallikrates. Let Amenartas 
go if she desires. Here you abide with me until all 
is accomplished. I command, and when I command, 
you must obey.” 

He wheeled about; he flung himself into the arms 
of Amenartas. They closed around him and held 
him fast. Then I threw out my will. Saying noth¬ 
ing I laid my strength upon him, so that he was 
dragged from out those arms and with slow steps 
drew near to me, as the bird draws near to the 
snake that charms it with its baleful eyes. Ame¬ 
nartas leapt between us and from her lips flowed 
words in torrents. 

All she said I do not know; it is forgot; but very 



350 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


sore she pleaded and very bitterly she wept. Yet 
my heart, new steeled in yonder fire, felt no pity 
for her. An hour past I should have bade him go 
his way and to look upon my face no more, but now 
it was otherwise. I was cruel, cruel as Death, 
King of the world. The wild beast does not spare 
its rival, neither would I. 

Still I drew him with my strength; still Ame- 
nartas clung and pleaded, till at last madness took 
hold of that tormented man. He raved, he cursed 
us both, he cursed himself who had left the quiet 
halls of Isis, who had spurned the love divine to 
seek the arms of woman. He prayed to Isis to be 
pitiful, to forgive, to receive his soul and shrive it. 

Then suddenly from his belt he snatched his 
short Grecian sword and stabbed at his own heart. 

Swift as a snake that strikes, or a falcon stooping 
at its prey, I sprang. I seized his arm, I dragged 
it back, and such might was there in my grasp, aye, 
the might of Hercules himself, that the sword flew 
far, and the strong man who held it reeled round 
and round and fell. 

We stood aghast, thinking that he was sped. Yet 
he rose, the red blood running from his breast, 
and in a quiet voice, a little laugh upon his lips, said 
to Amenartas, not to me, 

“Fear nothing, Wife. Alas! it is but a cut—skin 
deep, no more.” 

“Then let the fire heal it, O Kallikrates. Make 
ready to enter the fire that must soon retravel its 
circling path,” I answered. 

“Nay, nay, Husband,” cried Amenartas. “By 
that blood of yours, the blood that flowed in our 
dead son and flows in that of the child to be, I ad¬ 
jure you turn from this witch and temptress and 
break her enchanted bonds.” 


THE DOOM OF THE FIRE 


35i 


“By our dead son,” he repeated after her in a 
strange and heavy voice. “With what holier words 
could you conjure, O my wife? With that name 
of power I am new-armoured. Daughter of 
Wisdom, I reject your proffered gifts, nor will I 
enter your charmed fire though it should give to me 
eternal strength and gloriousness, and with these 
your shining beauty and your love. Child of the 
gods, farewell! I go to seek peace and pardon if 
it may be found. Yes, pardon for you and me, and 
for Amenartas, the mother of my child. Daughter 
of Wisdom, fare you well for ever!” 

I heard, and it seemed to me that I stood alone 
in the midst of a great silence while those cruel 
words, divorcing me from hope, fell one by one 
upon me like ice-drops from the sky, cutting to brain 
and heart and freezing me to stone. Then of a 
sudden rage possessed me, such rage as Nature 
knows in her fiercest moods, and I spoke as it gave 
me words, saying. 

“I call down death upon thee, Kallikrates the 
Greek. Death be thy portion and the grave thy 
home. Because thou hast rejected me, because thou 
hast offered me insult to my face, it is my will that 
thou mayest die; it is my desire that thy name be 
blotted out from the roll of Life. Die, then, Kal¬ 
likrates, that thine eyes may torment me no more 
and that I may learn to mock thy memory.” 

Thus I spoke those words of doom in my mad¬ 
ness, though what conceived them in my heart I 
do not know. There they sprang up suddenly at 
the touch of the wand of Evil, such evil as until 
now I had never dreamed. Lo! in a moment they 
fulfilled themselves. There before my eyes the 
man died, smitten of the dominion over Death that 
was the Fire’s fatal gift to me, as now, all unpre- 


352 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


pared, instantly I learned. Yes, the first service 
that I made of my dread majesty was to hurl that 
awful doom at the heart of the man I loved. 

He died! Kallikrates died there before our 
eyes. Yet being dead, still he stood upon his feet 
and spoke, though even then I knew that it was not 
he who spoke, but some spirit possessing his 
perished flesh. His lips did not move, his eyes 
were glassed, his voice was not the voice of Kal¬ 
likrates, nay, nor the voice of mortal man. Yet 
he spoke, or seemed to speak, and these were the 
words he said, 

“Woman, known on earth as Ayesha, daughter 
of Yarab, but in the Under-world by many another 
name, hearken to thy fate. Here, where thou hast 
betrayed thy trust, here where thou didst slay the 
man of thy desire, here through long ages shalt 
thou abide undying, until in the fulness of time he 
returns to thee, O Ayesha, in lonely bitterness shalt 
thou abide; tears shall be thy drink and re¬ 
morse thy bread. The power that thou didst crave 
shall be but a blunted, unused sword within thine 
hand. Thy kingdom shall be a desolation, thy sub¬ 
jects barbarians, and from century to century thy 
companions shall be the dead.” 

The voice ceased and I answered it, asking, 

“And when the returning tide of Time bears this 
man back to me, what then, O Spirit? Is all hope 
passed from me, O Spirit?” 

No answer came, but that which had been Kal¬ 
likrates sank in a huddled heap upon the sand. 


CHAPTER XXIV 
The Counsel of Philo 

Roaring like a whirlwind, shouting triumphantly, 
once more the wheel of fire rolled on its tremendous 
course. I watched it come, I watched it go, while 
in it I thought I saw grinning, elf-like faces that 
gibbered at me and thrust out tongues of derision. 
It departed on its secret journey through the bowels 
of the world. Its thunder sank to mutterings, its 
mutterings to silence, while I said to my heart that 
could I be sure that it would slay, I would cast my¬ 
self beneath its chariot wheels. 

To what purpose? Since then, as I believed in 
those days, in the flames I should find but added life 
—I who could not die. 

It was gone. Naught remained save the cave 
carpeted with white sand and the rosy light playing 
on the body of the dead Kallikrates. Nay, Ame- 
nartas remained also, and I became aware that she 
was cursing me by all her gods, or rather by those 
who had been her gods before she turned her face 
from them, seeking the counsel of familiar spirits. 

Bravely she cursed and long, calling down upon 
my head every evil that can be found in heaven 
above or earth beneath; she who did not know that 
this was needless, for already the winged Furies had 
made it their resting-place and before they could be 
uttered all her imprecations were fulfilled. 

“Have done!” I said when at length she grew 


353 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


354 

weak and weary, “and let us summon Philo to help 
us bear this noble clay to some fitting sepulchre.” 

“Nay, Witch,” she answered, “use your magic on 
me also, if you can. Slay the wife as you have slain 
the husband, and here let us rest eternally. What 
tomb can be better for both of us than that which 
saw our murder.” 

“Have done!” I repeated. “You know well that 
I have no desire to kill you and that it was my 
madness, not my will, that brought doom on Kal- 
likrates, whom we loved; I who had not learned that 
henceforth my spirit is a bow winged with deadly 
shafts.” 

I went down the cave and through the passage 
that lay beyond and from its mouth called to Philo 
to follow me. 

He came, and perceiving my new loveliness as I 
stood awaiting him in the rosy light, fell to the 
ground, kissing my feet and the hem of my robe, and 
muttering, 

“O Isis-come-to-Earth! O Queen divine!” 

“Rise up and follow me,” I said, and led him to 
where lay Kallikrates, by whom knelt the widowed 
Amenartas weeping bitterly. 

“Overwhelmed with the sight of glory, alas! this 
lord has slain himself,” I said, and pointed to the 
wound in the dead man’s breast whence still the 
blood oozed drop by drop. 

“Nay, this witch slew him,” moaned Amenartas, 
but if Philo heard her words, he took no heed of 
them. 

Then at my command the three of us lifted Kal¬ 
likrates and bore him thence up the difficult ways, 
which never could we have done had I not discov¬ 
ered that now in my woman’s shape that seemed so 
frail and weak was hid unmeasured strength. 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 355 

So through the caves and up the winding slopes 
and stairs we bore the dead Kallikrates, bringing 
him back to the hermitage of Noot but a little be¬ 
fore the hour of sunset. Here I commanded Ame- 
nartas and Philo to eat and drink, though myself I 
needed neither food nor wine. While they did so, 
aided of this new strength of mine, I lifted the body 
of Noot from where it knelt and laid it down, cross¬ 
ing the hands upon the breast, and having covered 
it with a robe, left him to his last sleep. 

These things finished, we carried Kallikrates to 
the crest of the Swaying Stone, and waited the com¬ 
ing of the ray. Suddenly it shone out, and in its 
fierce light we dared the shifting bridge. Beneath 
a weight which it was ill designed to bear, the frail 
thing broke just as Amenartas and Philo, bearing 
the feet of the dead man, had found footing upon 
die point of the spur beyond. It seemed that I 
should have fallen, yet I fell not, who, I know not 
how, found myself at their side still supporting 
Kallikrates in my arms. 

Then it was that first I learned that as I was 
protected from the gnawings of the tooth of Time 
so also I was armoured against all the strokes of 
chance. This indeed became very clear to me in 
the after days. Thus once when the roof of a 
cave fell upon me and others they were slain but I 
remained unbruised, and again, when a deadly snake 
bit me, its poison harmed me not at all. But what 
of these things which are not worthy to be chron¬ 
icled, seeing that if I could die, in the passing of 
two thousand years and more, what men call mis¬ 
hap must long since have brought me to my 
end. 

We bore Kallikrates down the spur and through 
the cavern whence it springs, till at length we found 


356 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

the litters waiting for us, and in one of these we laid 
his quiet form. 

Thus at length we came back to Kor at the hour 
of the dawn. 

Again we lifted up the corpse of Kallikrates and 
carried it to the chamber where I slept. A thought 
came to me. 

“Philo,” I said, “did you not tell me that among 
those who serve us in this temple are certain aged 
medicine-men who declare that knowledge of the 
arts whereby the people of old Kor preserved their 
dead from corruption has come down to them, which 
arts they still practise from time to time?” 

“It is so, O Queen,” for so he named me now. 
“There are three of them.” 

“Good. Summon them, Philo, and bid them 
bring with them their instruments and spices.” 

Awhile later the three appeared, very aged, cun¬ 
ning-looking men who had upon their hook-nosed 
faces the stamp of high and ancient blood. I 
pointed to the body of Kallikrates and asked, 

“Are ye able to hold back this holy flesh from the 
foul fingers of decay?” 

“If he be not more than forty hours dead,” an¬ 
swered one of them, “we can do so in such fashion 
that when five thousand years have passed it will 
seem as it does at this hour, O Queen.” 

“Then to your office, Slaves, and know that if ye 
do as ye have promised ye shall receive great re¬ 
ward. But if ye lie to me, ye die.” 

“We do not lie, O Queen,” he said. 

Forthwith they lit a fire outside the chamber and 
thereon set a large earthen pot. In this pot, mixed 
with water, they placed dried leaves of a certain 
shrub, in shape long and narrow, and boiled them 
to a broth, whereof the pungent odour seemed to 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 


357 


fill all the air about. While the pot was boiling 
they took the corpse of Kallikrates, and, having 
washed it, brushed it everywhere with some secret 
stuff that gave to it the aspect of white and shin¬ 
ing marble. Then they brought a funnel of clay 
with a curved point, and having opened the great 
artery of the throat, inserted the point into the 
artery. 

This done, they stood the stiff corpse on its feet 
and while two of them held it thus, the third 
brought the pot into which they poured stuff that 
looked like glass when it is molten, mixing all 
together with a rod of stone. Then he set a lad¬ 
der, perhaps four paces in length, against the wall, 
and carrying the pot, climbed to the top of it, 
whence slowly he poured the brew into the funnel 
beneath so that its weight forced it through 
all the dead man’s veins. When the most of it was 
gone he descended and the three of them finished 
their work in some way that I did not stay to watch, 
for the sight of this grim preparation for the tomb 
and the scent of these spicy drugs overcame me. 

At length they summoned me and showed me 
Kallikrates lying like to one in a deep sleep, calm 
and beautiful as he had been in life. 

“O Queen,” said their spokesman, “by to-morrow 
at the sunrise the flesh of this man will be as marble, 
and so everlastingly remain. Then bear him where 
you will, but till then let him rest untouched.” 

I bade that they should be rewarded, and they 
went their ways. But first I asked them where the 
inhabitants of old Kor were wont to lay their royal 
dead. They answered that it was in the great 
caves at a little distance across the plain, and I 
commanded that on the morrow they should guide 
me thither, bearing the body of Kallikrates. 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


358 

Philo came and said that the priests and priest¬ 
esses of Isis would have speech with me and that 
they were gathered in the inmost court of the great 
temple before the veiled statue of the goddess 
Truth. I bade him lead on, but he wavered a little 
and said, 

“O Queen, there is trouble. The royal lady, 
Amenartas, has told a tale in the ears of those 
priests and priestesses. She has sworn to them that 
you are not a woman but a daemon; aye, a witch 
risen from the Under-world, and that you murdered 
the lord Kallikrates because he would not give 
himself to you. Also she swore that you strove to 
murder her who, being protected by the magic which 
her father Nectanebes, the great wizard, taught 
her, was too strong for you and therefore escaped 
alive.” 

“As to the last, she lies,” I answered carelessly. 

We came to the inmost court. It was the hour 
of sunset and the place was filled with glowing light. 
I took my seat upon the throne-like chair beneath 
the statue and the light beat full upon me, a glory 
on a glory. 

The priests and priestesses who were standing 
still with folded arms and bowed heads looked up 
and saw me. A murmur of astonishment rose from 
them and I heard one say to the other, 

“The Princess has told us truth.” 

At first I did not understand; then I remembered 
that I was no longer as mortal women are, but 
rather, as my mirror told me, an incarnate splen¬ 
dour, a very goddess to the sight. 

“Speak,” I said, and they shook at the new rich 
note of power in my voice, as leaves vibrate at the 
sudden swell of music. 

The first of the priests, a large man of middle 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 


359 


age, Rames by name, stood forward and fixing his 
round eyes upon my face, said, 

O Prophetess, O Daughter of Wisdom, O Isis- 
come-to-Earth, we know not what to say, since we 
have heard that you have changed your shape, now 
as is evident to us. Prophetess, you are not the 
same high-priestess who ruled over us in the temple 
at Memphis and whom we followed to this desolate 
land. Some magic has been at work with you.” 

“If so,” I answered, “is it an evil magic? Tell 
me, Rames, am I changed for better or for 
worse?” 

“You are beautiful,” he answered, “so beautiful 
that madness must take all men who look on you. 
But, Prophetess, your loveliness is not such as mor¬ 
tal woman wears. Nay, it is such as Typhon might 
give to one who had sold her soul to him. Also, 
there is more. We learn that you murdered that 
Grecian, Kallikrates, who once was of our fellow¬ 
ship, because he refused his love to you; yes, that 
you, the high-priestess of Isis, murdered a man be¬ 
cause he turned from your arms to those of his wife, 
the royal Amenartas, and that if you could, you 
would have murdered her also.” 

“Who tells this tale?” I asked slowly. 

“The Princess herself,” Rames answered. “See, 
she is here. Let her speak.” 

Amenartas appeared from among the throng, and 
cried, 

“It is true, it is most true. Here before the 
statue of Truth herself, I swear it in the face of 
Heaven and to all the listening earth. There is a 
wound on the breast of my dead lord, Kallikrates. 
Ask yonder witch how that wound came there. 
Clothed only in her hair, she entered into a fire, a 
fire of hell. She came forth beautiful with a beauty 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


360 

that is not human. She called my lord to embrace 
her. Yes, this shameless one, she named herself 
his spouse. This she did before the eyes of his 
own wife and in the hearing of her ears. She bade 
him enter the Fire of Hell, and when he would not, 
when he turned to seek refuge in my arms, she 
sent him down the path of death by her words of 
power. She said: 

“ ‘I call down death upon thee, Kallikrates. 
Death be thy portion and the grave thine home. 
Die, Kallikrates, that thy face may torment me no 
more and that I may learn to mock thy memory.’ 

“These were her very words. Let her deny 
them if she can. I say, moreover, that always she 
has desired to lead astray the lord Kallikrates, and 
that when she could not do so of her woman’s 
strength, then she made a pact with Typhon and 
strove to mesh him in her magic, but strove in vain. 
Therefore she slew him in her rage.” 

When the priests and priestesses heard these 
words they turned pale and trembled. Then they 
called to me to answer. But I said, 

“I answer not. Who are you that I should 
render account to you of what I have or have not 
done? Think what you will and do what you will. 
I answer not, save this, that what has chanced, 
has chanced by the decree of Fate who sits above all 
gods and goddesses, throned beyond heaven’s re¬ 
motest star.” 

They drew apart, they talked together. Then 
Rames came forward and, still staring at me, said: 

“Whether you yet serve Isis, O Ayesha, daughter 
of Yarab, we do not know. But we who are her 
children, sworn to her obedience for which we have 
suffered many things, reject you from your place of 
rule in which you were set above us by the holy 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 361 

Noot, whom we learn has passed to the keeping of 
Osiris. No more are you our high-priestess, Aye- 
sha, or Evil Spirit, and no longer shall you stand 
with usbefore the altars of the Queen of Heaven.” 

“Be it as you will,” I answered. “Go and leave 
me to make mine own peace with Isis, who now and 
henceforward am her equal, I who have learned 
what Isis is, and been clothed with that same 
majesty. I see that you believe me to blaspheme; 
the horror upon your faces tells me so. Yet I do 
not; here in the shadow of Truth—if it were but 
known, the only goddess—I speak with the voice of 
Truth. . Farewell. I wish you good fortune, and 
in all things will aid you if I can. Tell me, Philo, do 
you desert me like these others?” 

“Nay, O Queen,” he answered, “we are old com¬ 
rades, you and I, who have gone through too 
much together to separate at last. I am a 
Greek who entered into the company of Isis chiefly 
after I met you, fair Daughter of Wisdom, and 
noted the deeds you did upon the ship Hapi, and to 
be short—whatever road you take is a good road 
for me. I know not whether you slew this Kal- 
likrates, or whether he slew himself with his own 
sword, of which I noted the mark upon him, but if 
you offered him your love and he refused it then I 
hold that he deserved to die. 

“For the rest, I am a merchant who take my gain 
where I can find it, and I know that you pay well. 
Therefore I follow your banner to the end, whether 
it lead me to the Heaven of Isis or to the Hades 
of my forefathers, where doubtless I shall meet 
Achilles and Hector and Odysseus and many an¬ 
other gallant seafaring warrior of whom our Homer 
sings. That place whither you wend is home 
enough for me, for in your palace I shall always find 



362 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

a chamber, and on your ship of state I shall always 
stand upon the poop, however far the voyage.” 

Thus spoke that gay and cunning Greek, hiding 
the loyalty of his heart beneath his jesting words, 
and truly in that hour of deserted loneliness my 
gratitude went out toward him, as still it does to¬ 
day and will do for evermore. For though Philo 
would take a bribe where he could find it, as is the 
way of those who serve Fortune and must earn 
bread, still he was ever loyal to those he loved, and 
he loved me in that high fashion which is born of 
long service and of fellowship. When at length I 
come into my great inheritance, and rule other¬ 
where—as rule I shall—my first care shall be to 
reward Philo as he deserves, although once or more 
he did fill his pouch with the gold of Amenartas, or 
so I believe. 

Yet at this time I only smiled at him and asked, 

“These things being done, what of the Princess 
of Egypt? Let her speak her desire that I may 
fulfil it, if I can.” 

“It is simple,” answered Amenartas, “that I may 
be rid of you, no less and no more. I would go hence 
to bear my child and to rear him to wreak vengeance 
on you for his father’s blood, O Witch of the 
Under-world, and until I die, to work and pray that 
the Furies may be your bedfellows, O murderess and 
thief of love.” 

“Let these things befall as they are fated,” I 
answered very quietly. “The stage of doom is set 
and on it throughout the ages until the play ends at 
last, we, the puppets of Destiny, must act our ap¬ 
pointed parts to a consummation that we cannot 
foresee. But how will it end, Lady Amenartas? 
You know not; nor do I, though already some mas¬ 
ter’s hand has writ the last scene upon his roll. 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 


363 

Philo, it is my command that you lead Pharaoh’s 
child to the coast, or wherever she would go, that 
thence she may find her way to Greece or Egypt as 
Fortune may direct her. That done, return and 
make report to me. Farewell, Amenartas.” 

“Fare ill, Witch,” she. cried. “We part, but as I 
think, to meet again elsewhere, seeing that between 
you and me there is a score to settle.” 

“Aye,” I answered gently enough. “Yet boast 
not, Amenartas, and be not too sure of anything, 
since when at length that sum is added up, who 
knows on which side the balance will be struck.” 

“At least I know that the count will be long and 
that murder is a heavy weight in any scale,” she 
answered. 

Then she went; they all went and left me alone 
brooding there upon the chair of state, in which I 
sat for the last time. The darkness closed about 
me, then came the twilight of the rising moon in 
whose soft rays I saw the figure of a man creeping 
toward me as a thief creeps. 

“Who comes?” I asked. 

“Beauteous Queen,” answered a thick voice, “it is 
I, Rames, the priest.” 

“Speak on, Rames.” 

“O most fair among women, if indeed you may 
be named woman, hear me. Those fools of priests 
and priestesses have thrown you from your place.” 

“So you told me but now, Rames, nor can they 
be blamed.” 

“So I told you because I must, not of my own 
will, and that which is done, cannot be undone. 
You are cast out and here in Kor the worship of Isis 
is at an end, since who is there that can fill your 
throne? Yet, hearken, hearken! I cling to you, I 
worship you. I desire you to be my wife, O most 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


364 

lovely. Here together we will rule in Kor and 
you shall be its Queen and goddess, and I will be 
its Captain. It is most wise that you should con¬ 
sent, O Lady divine.” 

“Why is it wise, Rames?” 

“Because, Lady, I can protect you. You know 
the sentence that goes out against those who break 
the rule of Isis. I say that it is already* uttered 
against you. I say that those bigots seek to mur¬ 
der you. But if you take me as husband, then we 
will be beforehand with them and kill or drive 
them away. Yea, now that you are lonely and 
deserted, I shall be your sure shield.” 

I heard and laughed aloud, and I think that this 
madman interpreted that laugh in a strange fashion. 
At least he threw himself upon me. He seized my 
hand and lifted it toward his lips, though by 
those lips it was never touched. For now rage 
took hold of me, such rage as had possessed my soul 
in the cave of the Fire of Life; rage and the desire 
of destruction, that with other evil gifts had come 
to me in the breath of the Fire. 

“Accursed one!” I cried, “vile and insolent thief! 
Do you dare to touch me with your hand? Away 
with you to Set! Let the world know you no 
more!” 

As the words passed my lips it seemed to me that 
from some strength within a withering flame leapt 
out of me and smote that man as the lightning 
smites. At the least he lifted his hands to his head; 
he reeled back, he fell, he groaned—he died. 

Looking at him lying there in the moonlight, still 
and bereft of life, at the last I came to know full 
surely that henceforward I could slay with a thought, 
that I was the Lady of Death, and that such wrath 
as others express in words went forth from me with 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 365 

all the might of Heaven; moreover, that now this 
wrath rose suddenly and swiftly in me, easy to un¬ 
chain, hard to hold. Yea, I was both a fury and 
a terror whom no man might cross or vex if he 
would continue to look upon the sun. 

Philo came. He stared at me and at the dead 
Rames, then questioned me with his eyes. 

“He would have laid hands on me, Philo, and I 
slew him,” I said. 

“Then what he has earned, he has been paid,” 
answered Philo. “Yet, Queen, how did you slay 
him? I see no bruise or wound.” 

“By a power that has come to me, Philo. I 
desired him dead and he died. That is all the tale.” 

“A strange and a terrible power, Queen. Often 
when we are angry we wish that this one or that 
were dead—yet that they should forthwith die—! 
Henceforth you must watch your moods well, 
Daughter of Wisdom, since otherwise I think that 
you and I will soon be parted for, as I know, at 
times you are angry with me, and when next that 
chances I shall be sped.” 

“Aye, Philo, so I have learned. I must watch my 
moods very well. Yet fear nothing, since never 
could I wish you dead.” 

“Are you sure, Ayesha? Hearken. What was 
the crime of this poor wretch? Was it not that he, 
who hitherto had been a virtuous man, a good and 
earnest priest who never turned to look at woman, 
of a sudden went mad for love of you, and in his 
madness urged his suit—well, as men do when they 
have lost hold of the reins of reason, whereon you 
slew him? Now if men must die for such a crime, 
who is there that would live to grow old? I think 
that all of them would soon be driven to dwell in 
such a hermitage as that wherein the holy Noot 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


366 

sleeps to-night. Is it not true? I ask you who 
know the world.” 

“It is true,” I answered. 

“If so, Lady, I would ask another question. 
What was it that sent this man mad? Was it not 
the sight of such beauty as has never yet been known 
upon the earth? Which beauty, Ayesha, if I look 
upon it much longer, I think will send me mad also, 
or any other man. Daughter of Wisdom, such love¬ 
liness as you wear to-day is the greatest curse that 
the gods can grant to woman, because being above 
Nature, all Nature must obey its might. Daughter 
of Wisdom, henceforward you must veil your face 
from the eyes of men, or become the murderess of 
more ill-fated ones.” 

“It seems that this is so,” I answered heavily. 
“I have desired beauty and beauty has come to me, 
but however great, all gifts are not good.” 

“So I have heard philosophers preach in Greece, 
Lady, yet never did I know one of them to turn his 
back on any gift. Ayesha, hide those eyes of yours, 
hide them swiftly. While Rames lies there dead, 
love is frightened, but once his clay is gone, who 
knows? But I forgot, I came to warn you that a 
certain decree has been uttered against you, the 
same, Queen, that you have uttered against Rames, 
also to protect you, if I can.” 

Now I laughed outright. 

“Foolish man,” I said, “do you not yet under¬ 
stand that I cannot be killed or even harmed?” 

“Ye Gods!” said Philo, holding up his hands in 
amazement. Then he was silent. 

That night I slept by the cold shape of Kal- 
likrates and oh! it was the most fearful of all nights 
that ever I had passed upon the earth. Evil, very 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 367 

evil were the dreams that came to me, if dreams 
they were. In them it seemed that Noot spoke 
with me. Nay, not Noot, but a flickering tongue 
of fire which I knew to be the spirit of Noot. 
Naught could I see save that burning tongue, and 
from it came terrible words. 

“Daughter,” it said, “you have cast my counsels 
to the winds, you have betrayed your trust, you 
have broken my commands that I gave to you out 
of the wisdom that was given to me. You have 
entered the Fire that you were set to watch. You 
have been embraced by the Fire and received its 
gifts. Behold the first fruits of them. The man 
whom you would have taken lies dead at your side, 
and yonder in the temple court another lies dead 
also, who was good until your hell-granted beauty 
made him evil. The worship of Isis is destroyed 
in this land that now 'nevermore will become a 
nation great and strong and pure. The heart of 
Amenartas is broken, yet she will live on to beget 
avengers, one of whom will overtake you at the ap¬ 
pointed time. In loneliness, in remorse, in utter 
desolation you must endure till the Fire dies that 
cannot die while the world is; seeking yet never 
finding, or finding but to lose again. Henceforth 
you are an alien to the kindly race of men, a beau¬ 
teous terror that all must desire and yet all fear and 
hate. Ever that which you seek will flit before 
you like a wandering star which you may never 
overtake, and in following it you will bring death to 
thousands. Daughter, you are accursed.” 

“Is there then no redemption?” I asked of Noot 
in my dream. 

“Aye, Ayesha, when the world is redeemed, then 
perchance you may find your part in that great for¬ 
giveness. Hearken. There is a vision which 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


368 

throughout your life has haunted you. In that 
vision Aphrodite and the evil gods, those gods that 
she had led into Egypt to destroy its higher faith, 
were summoned before the throne of Isis. In it 
also a fate and a command were laid upon you— 
that you should war against those gods and bring its 
punishment on Egypt that received and welcomed 
them.” 

“It is but a fantasy,” I answered. “Now I know 
that there are no evil gods; there lives no Aphro¬ 
dite ; even no Isis.” 

“Daughter, you err. True, there is no Isis who 
was shaped only by the faith of earth and in the 
dreams of men. Yet there is that which they name 
Isis, as the highest that they know and can fashion 
in their thought. There is the eternal Good and 
that Good is God. Throughout the countless ages 
man, warring against Nature, has lifted up his heart 
till almost he seems to look upon the face of that 
almighty, regnant Good. Thus it was with you, 
Daughter, and now whither have you wended? You 
have fled down the backward path. You have un¬ 
done all, you have gone back to Nature. Hence¬ 
forth you are Nature’s self, shining with her false 
and passing beauty, inspired with her law of death, 
you who once drew near to the new law of Life that 
awaited you beyond the grave, which now you may 
not seek.” 

“Whate’er I did, I did for Love and Love shall 
save me,” I seemed to answer in my agony. 

“Aye, Ayesha, doubtless in the end Love will 
save you, as it saves all things that without its grace 
must perish everlastingly. Yet for you that salva¬ 
tion is now far away, and ere it can be found, one 
by one you must conquer those passions that found 
you in the Fire. You who sought undying beauty, 


THE COUNSEL OF PHILO 369 

must see your fair body more hideous and more 
horrible than the leper of the streets. You who are 
filled with rage and strength must grow gentle as a 
dove and weak as a little child. By suffering you 
must learn to soothe the sufferings of others. By 
expiation you must atone your crimes, by faith once 
more you must lift up your soul. By the knowl¬ 
edge you shall win you must come to understand 
your own blind pettiness through time untold. 
Ayesha, this is your doom.” 

Such was the substance of that dream and when 
I awoke from it, oh! how bitterly I wept. For 
now I understood. I was fallen—fallen! All that 
I had gathered through the long years of prayer 
and abstinence and service had been reft from me, 
and I who stood near to joy had sunk into a hell 
of unending sorrow. There was no Isis, so I had 
dreamed Noot to say, and so my new knowledge 
told me. Yet there was the eternal Good which in 
Egypt men knew as Isis, and in other lands by many 
a different name, and from that Good I was excom¬ 
municate. 

Now like my savage ancestors of a million years 
before, I was but a part of Nature as we see her 
upon the earth and feel her in our blood and—this 
was the most dreadful of my punishments—my wis¬ 
dom and my lost faith had become rules by which 
I could mete out the measure of my fall, for 
ignorance can smile at that which to knowledge is 
a hell. All Nature’s gifts were mine; all her beauty, 
all her desires, all her fierceness, all her hates, and 
one by one, through countless time I must weed her 
every evil growth from the garden of my poisoned 
soul. The curse with which she was accursed had 
smitten me also, and in the end her death would be 
my death. Such was the doom that I had brought 


370 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


upon my head when I had listened to the calling of 
that god of Fire. 

Oh! looking upon the cold corpse of Kallikrates 
and feeling the primeval passions surging in my 
breast, little wonder that I, the rejected of Heaven, 
wept as still I weep to-day. 

For such is the lot of those who trample on all 
good as they run to seize the glittering gauds that 
the tempter spreads before their lusting eyes. Per¬ 
chance Noot never broke his holy rest to speak to 
me in dreams; perchance it was the strength in my 
own soul that spoke to my heart, as that strength, 
of which now I knew the power, in the old days 
wrought marvels that then I believed to be done by 
the invisible hand of Isis. At least the lesson taught 
is true. 


CHAPTER XXV 

In Undying Loneliness 

Ere the dawn, guided by those old embalmers and 
bearing with me the dead Kallikrates, I departed 
from that hateful Kor. As I think, none saw me 
go, for, forgetful of their promised vengeance, the 
priests and priestesses were gathered trembling 
about the corpse of Rames in the inmost court of 
the Temple of Truth, though it is true that I felt 
the baleful eyes of Amenartas watching me. Or 
perhaps it was her pursuing hate I felt, and not her 
eyes. 

Veiled so that no man might look upon my deadly 
beauty, I crossed the plain and came to the vast 
cave-sepulchres. Here those old embalmers lit 
lamps and showed me a deep and empty tomb. It 
had two shelves or niches, on one of which I laid 
my dead, choosing the other to be my couch. Thus 
then I took up my abode in the Sepulchres of Kor 
that for some two thousand years were to be my 
home. 

At my command Philo led the royal Amenartas 
from the haunted land of Kor, and returning three 
moons later, told me, truly or not, that she had 
passed the swamps and departed on a wandering 
ship, sailing north, whither he knew not. I asked 
him no more who did not desire to learn of her 
words and curses, though as it chanced this I must 

37i 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


37 2 

do after long ages had gone by. Some of the priests 
and priestesses went with her. Others remained in 
Kor and, if they were young enough, took wives or 
husbands and ruled there. Indeed, the last of their 
descendants whom I could trace before their blood 
was utterly swallowed up in that of the barbarians, 
died after five hundred years or more had passed 
away. 

Philo, too, lived on at Kor, making trading jour¬ 
neys to the coast and along it in his ship and grew 
rich and, after a fashion, great. For Philo would 
never leave me whom he loved, though no more 
would he look upon my unveiled face. At length, 
very old, he died in my arms, he who would have 
none of the Fire and its gifts. When his breath 
left him, for the first time since that night at Kor, I 
wept. For now I was quite alone. 

While he lay dying he prayed me to unveil, say¬ 
ing that now, when no harm could come of it, he 
would look upon my face once more. I did so and 
he studied me long and earnestly with his hollow 
eyes. 

“You are wondrous beautiful,” he said, “nor dur¬ 
ing these past forty years or more, since last I be¬ 
held you unveiled in the sanctuary of the Temple of 
Truth, has your loveliness lessened by one wit. In¬ 
deed, I think that it has gathered. What is the 
meaning of this, fair Daughter of Wisdom?” 

“It means what I have told you before, Philo, 
that I do not die until the world dies, although I 
may change and seem to pass away.” 

“Yet I die. Do we then part for ever?” he 
asked. 

“Nay, I think not, Philo, for at last Death over¬ 
takes everything and in its halls*we may meet again. 
Moreover, the world lives long and to it, ere its 


IN UNDYING LONELINESS 373 

end, you may return once, or often, and if so, per¬ 
chance you will be drawn to me.” 

“I trust so, O Wisdom’s Daughter. They call 
you witch, and doubtless such you are, who can slay 
with a glance, whom age does not touch, and whom 
Death scorns. Yet, witch or woman, or both, there 
lives none, no, not even wife or child, whom I so de¬ 
sire to meet hereafter.” 

So Philo died, and since those medicine-men who 
had embalmed Kallikrates now were dead also, 
leaving behind them none who had knowledge of 
their art, I buried him unpreserved in the great 
sepulchres. 

Awhile ago the fancy took me to go to look upon 
him, but alas! after the passing of some sixteen hun¬ 
dred years, save for the skull, his naked bones had 
crumbled into dust. 

What more is there to tell? All died and came 
again in their children: generation after generation 
of them did I watch arise, flourish in their wild 
fashion, and go their ways down the path of Death. 
I ruled those barbarians, if rule it can be called. 
They were my slaves who feared me as a spirit, and 
I was kind to them, but if they angered me, then I 
slew them, for thus only could they be held in a due 
subjection even to one that they believed to be an 
ancient goddess whom their forefathers worshipped, 
Lulala by name, whose throne was in the moon. 

For these Amahagger were a terrible people, bar¬ 
barians who loved the night because their deeds 
were evil, and who, if strangers wandered among 
them, slew them by the setting of red-hot pots upon 
their heads, and afterward ate their flesh. Yet 
among them were some of a nobler sort, descended, 
as I think, either from the unmixed blood of the 


374 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

ancients of old Kor, or perchance from those priests 
and priestesses of Isis who had been my companions. 
Such a one was a certain Billali whom my lord Leo 
and Holly knew. But for the most part they were 
hook-nosed, treacherous, dark-haunting savages, and 
as such they must be handled. 

In the course of those long ages, to divert myself 
in my loneliness and for the purposes of study, I 
reared certain of these savages up to this and that. 
I stunted them to dwarfs, I bred them to giants. 
Musicians of a kind I made of some of them, though 
to do so took ten of their generations. Then I 
grew weary of the game and all these variants died 
back into the common stock; that fundamental type 
to which, if left alone, every species that springs 
on earth returns in time, and this more quickly 
than might be thought. The last breed that I 
created, or caused to create itself, was one of mutes 
evolved from a faithful strain who had served me 
well, since I found these mutes more docile and less 
wearisome than the rest. 

But enough of that people with which I have done 
for ever. 

What did I do through all those awful ages? At 
first, as I found I had the power, I threw my watch¬ 
ing eyes across the world, and learned all that hap¬ 
pened there. Thus I saw the battles of Alexander, 
his conquests and his death, and the rise of the 
Ptolemies in Egypt; also many other things in the 
countries with which I have had to do. But soon 
I tired of it all. 

Men arose of whom I knew nothing. Peoples 
changed, and ever the play repeated itself afresh, 
though with new actors. 1 had naught in common 
with them and their petty aims and passions, I who 
watched as a god might watch those that served him 


IN UNDYING LONELINESS 375 

not, or as an idle child watches the labours of colony 
after colony of ants. Yea, I tired of them and 
took no more heed of what they did or did not do 
upon their short journey to that forgetfulness 
wherewith the dust of Time would bury them. I 
was dead to the world, and the world was dead to 
me. 

In the ages that followed I sent out my soul to 
seek kindred souls and found some with whom I 
communed, though they never knew who it was that 
talked to them. With wise men throughout the 
earth I held this converse, and from them gathered 
knowledge, giving them in return something of my 
wisdom, which doubtless they presented to the gen¬ 
erations as their own. If so, the world was the 
gainer, and if Truth comes, what matters it whence 
it comes? 

I did more. I sought out the dead in their hab¬ 
itations beyond the stars, aye, and found not a few 
of them. Always they were eager to learn of the 
world and in return paid me with the coin of their 
unearthly lore. They told me of those other worlds 
and I made acquaintance with their princes and their 
rulers: I gathered up the broken fragments from 
the feasts that were spread upon these alien tables 
and drank of the dregs of their new wine. But, 
and here was the mystery, here was the grief: never 
once could I grasp the robe of any whom I had 
known upon the earth. I found not my father, I 
found not Noot, I found not Kallikrates, I found 
not Philo, I found not Beltis or Amenartas. In all 
that countless multitude I discovered no single soul 
to whom my mortal lips had spoken in its little day. 
Of friend or foe I found not one. Perchance all 
of them were still asleep and resting in their 
sleep. 


376 WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 

I looked into the secrets of Nature and they 
opened themselves to me like flowers beneath the 
sun. I inhaled their perfume, I admired their 
beauty, so that at length little was hid from me. I 
learned how to turn clay to gold and how to harness 
the lightning to my service, aye, and many another 
thing. Yet what was the use of all of it to me, the 
dweller in a tomb? 

Knowledge, the lord, is a barren grant unless it 
can also be a servant; aye, a slave at command to 
work good for man. 

For the rest, what did I do? Without the caves 
I sowed the seed of trees. I watched them spring, 
I watched them grow to saplings and, in the slow 
progression of the centuries, swell to great timbers 
with far-stretching arms beneath whose shade I 
rested. Thus they stood for many a hundred years. 
Then for many another hundred they decayed, grew 
hollow, rotted to dust and fell, their long day done 
at last. And I, I sowed me others. 

To mark the passage of those years lest I should 
lose count of them, in a certain cavern I laid me 
stones, a stone for every one as from the hand of 
Time it fell ripe into the bosom of Eternity. As on 
their rosaries, here and there, priests set larger 
beads to mark the tale of their completed prayers, 
so when ten years had gone I set a larger stone, and 
when a hundred had passed by, one larger yet and 
white in colour, while the thousandth year I marked 
with a little pyramid, two of which now stand in the 
Caves of Kor. It was a good plan whereby I could 
reckon easily, only some of the softer stones that 
lay near to the mouth of that cavern where sun and 
rain could reach them at length crumbled intc 
sand. 

"Why did I stay at Kor? Why did I not wander 


IN UNDYING LONELINESS 


377 

I 

forth through the world? Because I could not, 
because of the curse that had been laid upon me, 
that here I must wait until Kallikrates came again, 
as come I knew he would. Therefore no captive 
ever was more chained and fettered in his dungeon 
than I, Ayesha, by that compelling curse in the 
Sepulchres of Kor, where night by night I laid me 
down to rest in the cold company of the dead. From 
time to time, once in a generation mayhap, I would 
lift the cloths that covered him and look upon his 
pale beauty (for those old embalmers did not lie), 
and kiss his brow of ice and weep and weep. Then 
once more I laid the shroud, or a new shroud, upon 
him and went my weary way. 

Oh! it is terrible in this world where all is change, 
where even the stones grow and die to re-form 
again, to be the one thing that changeth not for 
ever. Yet, that was my lot, such was the gift of 
the Fire-lord whom I had wedded and embraced. 
There I sat in my eternal beauty which I was doomed 
to hide, lest brute men should be maddened at the 
sight of it, so that I must slay them with the light¬ 
ning of my will. There I brooded, gathering to 
my breast all that wisdom of Mother Nature 
of whom now I was a part, all the useless wisdom 
whose weight at length clogged my sense and 
cramped my soul. There I sat, eaten of desire for 
one dead and burning with jealous hate of that 
woman who had borne his child and who, as I knew 
well, wandered with him, greater than I perhaps 
and still more fair, in some Elysium that even my 
spirit could not reach, taking the place that I might 
fill, if only I could attain to the boon of death which 
is everlastingly denied to me, until the old world 
itself shall die. There, I say, I sat while the slow 
fire of the torturer Time, burning in my breast, ate 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


373 

its path through all my being, till the hot soul within 
me turned to the bitter ash of hopelessness. 

Oh! why did he not come? Why did he not 
come? Surely the circle must be complete and the 
time fulfilled/ Surely he must weary of those un¬ 
known heavenly fields and of the coarse love of 
Egypt’s Lady. Surely he would come and soon. 
Only then, what if here, as there, she still com¬ 
panioned him? 

At length one came, and when I learned of it my 
heart flamed up with hope as a torch flames in these 
dark caves. Alas! it was not he. So soon as my 
eyes fell on him afar, I knew it, yonder in the 
temple of Kor whither I had gone upon the matters 
of some petty savage trouble, such as had arisen 
thrice since the days of Philo. I saw and grew 
sick with hope destroyed, so sick that had he but 
known it, this little, wizened wanderer at that mo¬ 
ment stood near to the world’s edge. Yet after¬ 
ward I came to like him well, perchance because 
he reminded me so much of Philo that once or twice 
almost I thought-- But let this matter be. 

He was a strange man, that wanderer; very 
shrewd, but one who believed nothing which he could 
not see or touch or handle. Thus when I told him 
tales concerning myself and my length of days and 
why I sat at Kor in beauty, yet like one who is dead 
in a desert, openly he mocked at them, which 
angered me. Not all of these were true, be it ad¬ 
mitted, because, being a part of Nature as I am, how 
can I always speak the truth? 

Nature shows many faces to those who court 
her; Nature has desert-phantasies wherewith the 
traveller is oft deceived, thinking he sees that which 
he does not see, though in some shape or form of a 
Surety it exists elsewhere. Nature also keeps her 



IN UNDYING LONELINESS 


379 

secrets close and ever instructs in parables that yet 
hold the seed of perfect verity. 

So, being a part of Nature’s self, did I with that 
wanderer, as indeed I do to this day with Holly 
the learned, who followed after him. Yet here the 
example has its flaw, for this man who was called 
Watcher-in-the-Night, a name that fitted him well 
enough, did not court me, as her watchers court 
Nature the beautiful. Nay, he turned his back upon 
me saying he was not one who loved, moth-like, to 
singe his wings in a flame, however bright; I think 
because often he had singed them already. 

Still, I found this so strange that almost I began 
to wonder whether once more my beauty was on 
the wane and whether it needed longer to be hidden 
beneath a veil, or whether perchance men had 
grown wiser than they used to be. Therefore, once 
for a little moment I put out my strength and 
brought him to his knees and having taught him cer¬ 
tain lessons, I laughed at him and let him go. Yet 
be it said that I held and hold him dear, and look 
onward to the day when we shall meet again, 
as perchance we had met in those that are long past. 
So enough of this brave and honest man, gently 
born also, and instructed in his fashion. Doubtless 
he died many years ago. 

I tire of this long, sad task; let the end of my tale 
be short. 

At last, at last, came Kallikrates reborn, lacking 
memories, changed in spirit, and yet in face and 
form the very same. Holly brought him hither, or 
he brought Holly, because of an ancient, lying screed 
that Amenartas wrote upon a sherd, which from 
age to age had passed down in his race, urging some 
descendant of her blood to find me out and slay me, 



WISDOM'S DAUGHTER 


380 

for this Egyptian fool thought that I could be slain. 

He came, and by Heaven! I knew not that he was 
here until the crabbed Holly led me to the couch 
whereon he lay fever-stricken and at the very point 
of death. By my arts I dragged him back from 
between those doors of doom, that almost once 
again had closed behind him, and afterward, re¬ 
vealing to him my beauty and my burning love, 
caused him to worship me. Yet, mark! He came 
not alone; as I feared would chance, something of 
Amenartas prisoned in a savage woman’s breast 
came with him, and already he was her lover. 

I slew that woman who was obstinate and would 
not leave him; though the deed grieved me, I slew 
her because I must. It mattered little, for soon 
she was forgot, and I held him fast. 

Of the rest little need be said, for Holly knows it 
all and tells me that he has written it in a book. 
Because I might not wed with mortal man I led Kal- 
likrates, he who now was known as Leo, down the 
perilous ways to that hid cavern where ever the 
bright Spirit of Life, clad in flame and thunder, 
marches on his endless round. Behold! as it had 
been over two thousand years before, so it was now. 
Again Kallikrates feared to enter the flames and, 
putting on majesty, to become undying king of all 
the world. Aye, even though the prize of my glory 
lay to his hand, his flesh shrank from the Fire. 

Therefore that he might learn courage, once more 
1 gave myself to the embrace of the god, and lo! 
this time he slew me. Yes, in utter shame and hide¬ 
ousness before my lover’s eyes, there I died, or 
rather seemed to die; an ancient, shrivelled, ape¬ 
like thing. Yet dying, my unconquerable spirit 
gave me strength to mutter in his ear that I should 
come, aguin and once more be beautiful. 


IN UNDYING LONELINESS 


381 

Nay, I did not die. Far away again I became 
incarnate in this distant Asian land, which after all 
is my own, since in a part of it first I saw the light. 
Here in this cavern-monastery where still lingers 
some shadow of the worship of the moon and of 
the great Principle that in the old days was named 
Isis, Queen of Heaven, once more I was clothed 
with mortal flesh. 

The years went by, but two or three of them, and 
I found the power to search out Kallikrates, or Leo 
Vincey, still living on the earth, and in a vision 
showed him the mountains that I inhabit. He was 
faithful. Yes, like Holly he was faithful, and to¬ 
gether they followed that vision. For twice ten 
years they searched, and then at last they found me. 
They passed the perils and the tests; Kallikrates, or 
Leo Vincey, escaped the web spun by the Queen 
Atene, she in whom Amenartas once more shows 
herself upon the earth. They endured the appointed 
trials. Aye, when I unveiled before him on the 
mountain peak, my Love, my eternal Love, my 
doom and my desire, found strength and faith to 
kiss my hideous, withered brow. Then was that 
faith rewarded. Then before his very eyes I 
changed into the flower of all beauty, into the glory 
of all power, and he worshipped, worshipped, wor¬ 
shipped ! 

Now soon we shall be wed. Now soon the curse 
shall fall from us, like to a severed chain. Now soon 
my sin will be forgiven, and side by side we shall 
tread the endless path of splendour, no longer two 
but one, that path which leads through perfect joy 
—oh! whither does it lead? Even to-day I know 
not. 

But this cannot be yet awhile. First he must 


WISDOM’S DAUGHTER 


382 

bathe him in the Fire, since mortal man may not 
mix with my immortality and live as man. For 
while this world endures—have I not said it?—I 
who have drunk of the very Cup of its Spirit, aye, 
twice drunk deep, must also endure, and I think the 
world is still far away from the gates of Death. 
Aye, though I change a thousand times, still I shall 
be the same in other shapes, and though I seem to 
vanish, yet I must appear again. 

Where I go, also, thither Kallikrates must follow 
me, or I must follow him, since he and I are one, 
and on me is laid the burden of the uplifting of the 
soul of him whose body once I slew. 

And yet, and yet—oh! he is still human and 
death dogs the heels of man. As I write a horror 
seizes me. Aye, my hand trembles on the scroll 
and my spirit quakes. What if some chance, some 
sickness, some fate should strike him down, leaving 
me once more desolate and divorced, so that else¬ 
where all this dark tragedy must be played afresh? 

Away with that hell-born thought! There are 
no gods and, Fate, I defy thee who am myself 
a Fate and thine equal. I will conquer thee, O 
Fate; thou shalt not conquer me. There is naught 
but that eternal Good whereof the fiery tongue 
which was the soul of Noot spoke, or seemed to 
speak, to me in my haunted sleep at Kor, and to that 
Good I, Ayesha, make my prayer. 

Lo! I have suffered. Lo! I have paid the count 
to its last coin. Lo! I have endured. Through 
the long ages I have sown in tears, and my hour of 
harvest is at hand; aye, the night of sorrow dies, and 
already on the peak of heavenly Peace shines the 
dawn of joy. . . . My lord hunts upon the 

mountain after the fashion of men, and I brood 
within the caves after the fashion of women. . . . 


IN UNDYING LONELINESS 


383 

. . Holly, Holly! Awake! Look yonder! 

What is this? I seem to see my lord struggling on 
the snow and the spotted beast has him by the 
throat— . . 

Here ends Ayesha’s manuscript. Its last words 
are almost illegible and are written by one whose 
agitation was evidently great; indeed their ap¬ 
pearance suggests that they were set down in 
some half-automatic fashion while the writer’s 
mind was occupied with other matters. JVith them 
Ayesha ends her tale of which in outline the rest 
is to be found elsewhere—in the book that is named 
after her. Suddenly she appears to have tired 
of her task. Perhaps, heralded and induced by the 
incident of the snow-leopard that went near to end¬ 
ing the life of Leo Vincey y the presage of terrible 
woes to come, to which she alludes and not ob¬ 
scurely, paralyzed Ayesha’s mind or filled it with 
forebodings that rendered her incapable of further 
effort of the kind, or at least unwilling to endure 
its labour, of which, it is clear, already she was 
wearying. 

Editor. 


the END 



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